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Inyokern, California

A black and white photo of an industrial building.
Naval Ordnance Test Station Inyokern, China Lake

Dewey, William/public domain

Naval Ordnance Test Station

To ensure a weapon works, it must be tested. Testing often is done within the United States’ own borders in open, unpopulated areas such as high deserts and dried-up lake beds. China Lake, outside of Inyokern in Southern California, provided the U.S. Navy with just such a location to test equipment before it was used by American service men and women around the world.

In 1943, near the small high-desert town of Inyokern and the dried-up bed of China Lake, the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) was established to test and evaluate weapons. James Johnson worked as an ordnance man at NOTS from 1944 until the end of the war. He shared that the desert environment and remoteness of the site meant the Navy had a usable testing ground nearly year-round — something that Los Alamos, New Mexico, lacked.

During the Manhattan Project, the site played a role in developing non-nuclear explosive bomb components as a part of Project Camel. “Camel” refers to how difficult it is to dislodge a camel once it gets its nose into something — Caltech researchers had the same attribute. China Lake remained a development site for Project Camel until the 1950s.

Between the end of Project Camel and the 1990s, the site hosted various labs and personnel for the Naval Weapons Center (NWC). In the 1970s, a new technological era began, and NWC began to develop computer systems for aircraft called “avionics.” These new systems were placed in aircraft being developed and tested at the site. Today, these innovations are seen in widely-used aeronautic systems, from displays to landing systems to alerts.

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Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Last updated: January 14, 2026