United States Army Yuma Proving Ground
Encyclopedia
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
's Yuma Proving Ground is one of the largest military installations in the world. Situated in southwestern La Paz County
La Paz County, Arizona
La Paz County is a county in the western part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2010 census its population was 20,489. The county seat is Parker...
and western Yuma County
Yuma County, Arizona
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*70.4% White*2.0% Black*1.6% Native American*1.2% Asian*0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.8% Two or more races*20.8% Other races*59.7% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
in southwestern Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, approximately 30 miles (48 km) north-east of the city of Yuma
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of the state, and the population of the city was 77,515 at the 2000 census, with a 2008 Census Bureau estimated population of 90,041....
, the proving ground
Proving ground
A proving ground is the US name for a military installation or reservation where weapons or other military technology are experimented or tested, or where military tactics are tested...
is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles (3,387.2 km²) in the northwestern Sonoran Desert
Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which straddles part of the United States-Mexico border and covers large parts of the U.S. states of Arizona and California and the northwest Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It is one of the largest and hottest...
.
The proving ground conducts tests on nearly every weapon system in the ground combat arsenal
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...
. Munitions and artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
systems are tested here in an area almost completely removed from urban encroachment and noise concerns. Restricted airspace controlled by the test center amounts to over 2000 square miles (5,180 km²). Over 3000 people, mostly civilian, work at the proving ground. It is a major economic player in Yuma County, with an economic impact of over $430 million annually. Yuma Proving Ground is the largest single employer of civilians in the county.
In a typical year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
and missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
rounds are fired, 36,000 parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
drops take place, 200000 miles (321,868 km) are driven on military vehicles, and over 4000 air sorties are flown from the proving ground’s Laguna Army Airfield
Laguna Army Airfield
Laguna Army Airfield is a military airport located at Yuma Proving Ground, 12 nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Yuma, a city in Yuma County, Arizona, United States.- Facilities :...
. Though about 90 percent of the proving ground's workload is devoted to the test and evaluation of weapon systems and munitions, training activities are important. Dozens of units visit the proving ground each year for realistic desert training, especially before deploying overseas.
Yuma Proving Ground features the longest overland artillery range (40 miles (64.4 km)) in the nation, the most highly instrumented helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
armament test range in the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, over 200 miles (321.9 km) of improved road courses for testing tracked and wheeled military vehicles, over 600 miles (965.6 km) of fiber-optic
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
cable linking test locations, and the most modern mine and demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
s test facility in the western hemisphere. Realistic villages and road networks representing urban areas in Southwest Asia have been constructed and are used for testing counter-measures to the threat of roadside bombs. Many lives have been saved and injuries prevented due to thorough and realistic testing.
The General Motors Desert Proving Ground - Yuma was officially opened at the proving ground in late July 2009. Costing over $100 million, General Motors built the facility after closing its desert automotive test facility in Mesa, Arizona, that had been in operation since 1953. The new facility is a partnership between General Motors and the Army that allows Army automotive testers at the proving ground to test Army wheeled vehicles at the General Motors facility on a year-round basis. It is estimated that the track can be used to test about 80 percent of the Army's wheeled vehicle fleet.
Yuma Proving Ground’s sparkling clean air, low humidity, skimpy rainfall—only about 3 inches (76.2 mm) per year—and annual average of 350 sunny days, add up to almost perfect testing and training conditions. Urban encroachment and noise concerns are non-existent problems, unlike at many other military installations. An excellent two-way relationship has developed between the proving ground and local community elected officials and community leaders.
Of the four extreme natural environments recognized as critical in the testing of military equipment, three fall under the management authority of Yuma Proving Ground. Realistic natural environment testing ensures that American military equipment performs as advertised, wherever deployed around the world. The proving ground manages military equipment and munitions testing at three locations: The Cold Regions Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska; the Tropic Regions Test Center operating in Panama, Honduras, Suriname, and Hawaii; and at the Yuma Test Center located at Yuma Proving Ground. The common link between these test centers is "environmental testing," which makes the proving ground the Army's environmental test expert.
Yuma Proving Ground is fast becoming the Department of Defense’s premiere test and evaluation site for improvised explosive devices, commonly known as IEDs, the number one killer of American service men and women in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Afghanistan. Hundreds of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
s fly at the proving ground each year from the six airfields located at the proving ground, as do helicopters and fixed wing aircraft conducting personnel and cargo
Cargo
Cargo is goods or produce transported, generally for commercial gain, by ship, aircraft, train, van or truck. In modern times, containers are used in most intermodal long-haul cargo transport.-Marine:...
parachute drops. Nearly all the long range artillery testing for U.S. ground forces takes place at Yuma Proving Ground. Many friendly foreign nations also visit the proving ground to conduct test programs, including Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and others.
U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground is a subordinate of the Army's Developmental Test Command which, in turn, is a subordinate command of the Army Test and Evaluation Command.
History of U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground
The presence of the U.S. Army in Yuma goes back to 1850, when Fort Yuma wasconstructed on a hill overlooking the important Yuma crossing of the Colorado River.
Soldiers at Fort Yuma maintained peace and protected the important Yuma crossing,
which was used by thousands of travelers each year.
The Army constructed a second facility in 1865, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, to act
as a supply base for Army posts throughout Arizona and parts of New Mexico. Supplies
were delivered by riverboats and transported from the depot to military outposts by
wagon. After Fort Yuma and the Yuma Quartermaster Depot closed in the 1880’s, the
Army did not to return to Yuma on a permanent basis until World War II.
Yuma Proving Ground traces its history to Camp Laguna and the Army Corp’s of
Engineers Yuma Test Branch, both activated in 1943. Located on the Colorado River,
the Yuma Test Branch conducted testing on combat bridges, amphibious vehicles, and
boats. Tens of thousands of mechanized and infantry soldiers were trained at Camp
Laguna for duty at combat fronts throughout the world, from North Africa to the South Pacific. Abandoned campsites and tank trails can still be found on the modern day
proving ground.
Camp Laguna lasted only until the end of World War II. The Yuma Test Branch was
closed in 1949 and reactivated two years later as the Yuma Test Station, under the
operational control of the Sixth U.S. Army. In 1962, the station was named Yuma
Proving Ground and reassigned to the U. S. Army Materiel Command as an important
component of the Test and Evaluation Command. On July 26, 1973, it officially received
its full name—U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground. The following year it was designated
as a Department of Defense Major Range and Test Facility Base.
Since its early days, Yuma Proving Ground has been a desert environmental test center
for all types of military equipment and materiel. However, developmental and a variety
of other types of testing of artillery systems and ammunition, aircraft armament and
targeting systems, mobility equipment, and air delivery systems, not necessarily desert
environmental-related, now comprise the bulk of the workload. A heavy investment in
technology and a highly skilled soldier-civilian work force makes the proving ground a
significant social and economic component of the local community
Capabilities
Capabilities include:- Ground weapons systems from small arms to long range artillery
- Helicopter armament and target acquisition systems
- Artillery and tankTankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
munitions - Cargo and personnel parachutes, including guided systems technologies
- Land mineLand mineA land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
s and mine-removal systems - Tracked and wheeled vehicles in a desert environment
- VibrationVibrationVibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...
and interference-free tests of smart weapon systems - Laguna Army Airfield complex, featuring two runways – 6000 feet (1,828.8 m) and 5150 feet (1,569.7 m).
- 12 drop zones and multiple airstrips for Unmanned Aerial Systems
- A 55 miles (89 km) overland artillery range, the longest in the nation
- Over 200 miles (321.9 km) of improved road courses for tracked and wheeled vehicles
- State-of-the-art fiber optics systems to acquire, reduce and transmit data in real time
- Specialized facilities for testing countermeasures for the defeat of roadside bombs
Current and recent tests
Current and recent tests include:- Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon, the most advanced piece of the Army’s Future Combat Systems program
- The Counter - Rocket, Artillery & Mortar (C-RAM)system that has been deployed to combat areas overseas to defeat incoming enemy projectiles
- M777, a 155 mm lightweight howitzer
- Dragon FireDragon Fire (mortar)The Dragon Fire 120 mm heavy mortar was a private venture by TDA Armaments that was picked up by the US Marine Corps for its EFSS requirement. It is a fully automated mortar capable of using rifled or smoothbore 120 mm ammunition. Like all mortars it is a high-angle-of-fire weapon used for...
heavy automated mortar for USMC - XM982 Excalibur 155 mm precision-guided artillery projectile
- Advanced Tactical Parachute System
- Army and Navy Unmanned Aerial Systems - over 1000 flights per year
- AH-64DAH-64 ApacheThe Boeing AH-64 Apache is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter with a tailwheel-type landing gear arrangement, and a tandem cockpit for a two-man crew. The Apache was developed as Model 77 by Hughes Helicopters for the United States Army's Advanced Attack Helicopter program to replace the...
Longbow Apache Helicopter - M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank
- Bradley Fighting VehicleM2 BradleyThe Bradley Fighting Vehicle is an American fighting vehicle platform manufactured by BAE Systems Land and Armaments, formerly United Defense.As with other infantry fighting vehicles, the Bradley is designed to transport infantry with armor protection while providing covering fire to suppress enemy...
- StrykerStrykerThe IAV Stryker is a family of eight-wheeled, 4-wheel-drive , armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III and produced by General Dynamics Land Systems, in use by the United States Army. The vehicle is named for two American servicemen who posthumously received the Medal of Honor:...
Combat Vehicle - Extended Range Artillery and Tank Munitions
- Mine and Countermine Systems
- Electronic Counter Measure Devices
- AGM-114 HellfireAGM-114 HellfireThe AGM-114 Hellfire is an air-to-surface missile developed primarily for anti-armor use. It has multi-mission, multi-target precision-strike capability, and can be launched from multiple air, sea, and ground platforms. The Hellfire missile is the primary 100 lb-class air-to-ground precision...
, AIM-92 StingerAIM-92 StingerThe AIM-92 Stinger or ATAS is an air-to-air missile developed from the shoulder-launched FIM-92 Stinger system, for use on helicopters such as the AH-64 Apache, Eurocopter Tiger and also UAVs such as the MQ-1 Predator...
, AGM-65 MaverickAGM-65 MaverickThe AGM-65 Maverick is an air-to-ground tactical missile designed for close-air support. It is effective against a wide range of tactical targets, including armor, air defenses, ships, ground transportation and fuel storage facilities....
and BrimstoneBrimstone missileBrimstone is an air-launched anti-tank missile developed by MBDA for Britain's Royal Air Force. It was originally intended for "fire and forget" use against mass formations of enemy armour, using a millimetre wave seeker to ensure accuracy even against moving targets...
missiles fired from helicopters - Multiple cargo and personnel parachute systems