Navy Opens Directed Energy Lab

The U.S. Navy has opened its Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory (DESIL) at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu. The 18,500-sq-ft facility will enable the Navy to test and evaluate laser weapons systems in a maritime environment, taking advantage of the Point Mugu Sea Range that includes 36,000 miles of controlled air and sea space that can stretch to more than 220,000 miles. The laboratory also allows for installation of directed energy systems on its roof and inside the building for test and evaluation.

Invited guests attend the grand opening ceremony of the Directed Energy Systems Integration Laboratory at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu on Dec. 3. Courtesy of Dana Rene White, U.S. Navy.

“The importance of the capability that this is going to bring to the fleet can’t be understated,” said Michael Ladner, acting technical director of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD). “Our ability to go test, support, and understand how to do maintenance and operations on these systems, and the fact that it was built in two years, is just amazing, and it’s very timely for us to get systems in here and start being able to do the missions as we start delivering more capability to the fleet.”

“The near-peer and actual-peer adversarial threats faced by the Navy today are so stressing that if we don’t have facilities like this, we are simply not going to be able to keep pace,” said Vance Brahosky, deputy technical director of NSWC PHD. “The directed energy and high-power microwave technology testing that can now be done in this facility will allow us to evaluate and field warfighting capabilities so that the sailors and Marines on our ships can fight and win.”

The project broke ground in May 2020 at a cost of approximately $23 million.