What is being tested at China Lake, Calif, to cause this notice?

a reply to: onequestion

The Prowler? Because the Growler is what replaced it.

www.vx9.navy.mil...

theres a depot level maintenance facility there forgot what squadron it was but thats who i was stationed with

lots of other activity

hangar 5 is chained off no military aloud very secretive.

a reply to: Zaphod58

yeah sorry prowler

a reply to: Zaphod58
Thanks for all the replies!
That Phenom jet better heed the warning! Falling from the sky is not good.

Ah, yes, jamming guided weapons. That seems right up China Lake's alley.

Ok, yes, more than one satellites. Makes sense.

a reply to: desert

They really gave quite specific information such as dates, times of day, and locations. What I find even a little stranger is that this is being performed by the U.S. Navy? So maybe it is an overt combat system that can be deployed via the Navy wherever they are in the world on the seas and basically shut down an enemies ability to successfully defend itself with GPS guided missle/aircraft platforms. Just a guess.

A Notam (PDF) is warning operators of “all aircraft relying on GPS” of widespread GPS outages starting Tuesday throughout the Southwest and especially southern California. Although the FAA doesn’t go into detail, it seems the military is testing something that can disrupt GPS over a huge area, centered on China Lake, California, home of the Navy’s China Lake Naval Weapons Center. On Tuesday, June 7, the FAA is warning that GPS signals down to 50 feet AGL could be “unreliable or unavailable” between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. local time over a radius of 253 nautical miles, which includes the L.A. Basin, Bay area and Las Vegas. There will be further outages of similar potential duration June 9, 21,23, 28 and 30. The circles expand with altitude and at 40,000 feet the interference will affect a circular area of the Southwest 950 nautical miles across, reaching central Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Civilians might rely on L1/L2 frequencies or quadrature encoding but all military aircraft since the 50's or 60's use a hardened laser gyro don't they?

a reply to: thenightisours

what they dont tell you is the Navy gets to do all the cool stuff.

They do all the research and collect all the data.

Hell even space command is Navy.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Interesting. So interfering GPS for ground as well as air operations.

So it's not like we're knocking out satellites, but causing interference.

a reply to: thenightisours

Ah, yes, a sea based interference system. Also makes sense for Navy to test. I'm beginning to get a larger picture.... fuzzy but larger.

a reply to: thenightisours

China Lake tests systems for all services. The Navy is the main operator, but like Area 51 and TTR other services, including foreign militaries operate there, not just the Navy.

a reply to: Zaphod58

navy does most of the work the other branches and foreign militaries go there TAD typically, or in civilian terms for training

also vx-9 consistently trains the airforce and marines on new technology at edwards and nellis

they just do the testing the technology is engineered there by civilians and theres big contractors like boeing that have a lot of people on base


oh i forgot Special operations and SF get to play with new weapons there too

a reply to: onequestion

That's like with Groom and TTR. The AF is the primary operator and does most of the R&D there, with others coming in to test occasionally.

a reply to: Cauliflower

INS has been largely regulated to a backup. They still use it on case of a GPS failure, but the military GPS is more accurate than civilian.

a reply to: Zaphod58

yeah exactly

Oh, interesting! That's a very large area, so whatever it is, it's big. Some sort of jamming tech seems most likely. Enjoyed all of the additional data from others as well. This is the sort of thread that makes this site so interesting!!



Wonder if any of this will ever be explained.

a reply to: LadyGreenEyes

oh when i was there there were bombs test that probably hit the Richter scale

definitely earthquakes where i was at on the flight line.

a reply to: CagliostroTheGreat

originally posted by: CagliostroTheGreat
You said speculate!

Yes, I did. Indeed, you did!

Well, all I know is that China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station prevents me from taking my off road vehicle to places I would like. Sigh..... And neat planes fly overhead. And I found a piece of an exploded Mighty Mouse missile that was tested at China Lake in the early 1950s. But, I will keep my eye out for the slaves.

Hey, what do you know about these guys? Escapees from China Lake?

originally posted by: Cauliflower
a reply to: Zaphod58

Civilians might rely on L1/L2 frequencies or quadrature encoding but all military aircraft since the 50's or 60's use a hardened laser gyro don't they?

Not quite all. And inertial guiance ring laser gyros are reucing the reliance on GPS and TACAN.

a reply to: hellobruce

Well, I, too, was scared at first. My husband actually found this, and I said, Hey, I'd better get to ATS and see if anyone there could shed some light. I had visions of being thrown back into a pre-GPS life, sort of like the Y2K but far worse---airplanes falling out of the sky were the least of my personal worries

12 Practical Uses of GPS for Everyday People

And paper maps!! What young person could read a paper map these days? I'ld have to stand on my street corner and guide people with my collection of 10 year old paper maps. And if I wandered off alone...? Oh, the horror!

Thank God, it was only for air travel! This time. .....

a reply to: desert

Aircraft have navigated just fine without GPS and will continue to do so.