During WW II, NAS Patuxent River was one of many sites in which various new and modified weapons were tested. Wartime testing included certain air-delivered ordnance items as well as 'glide-bombs', which were explosives-laden uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) sometimes referred to as 'GLOMBs'. Click here for more on Pax River's role in testing GLOMBs.
During WW II, most Navy air-ground weapons were assessed and certified for flight at sites like the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, CA (external link). At Pax River, certified bombs and rockets (either inert or 'live') were almost always included in the test programs of fighters and strike aircraft. For weapons tests, several targets and ranges were available to Pax River crews (click here for more). Some of these sites remain in use today.
Pax River's wartime weapons testing generally focused on confirming a certified weapon's compatibility with every intended aircraft. This work generally entailed defining, for a given aircraft, the allowable flight envelope of a weapon, whether carried singly or in combination with other weapons. Additionally, Pax River crews often evaluated a weapon's overall effectiveness with a given aircraft, and developed tactics and procedures for safely employing the weapon with an aircraft.
One example of such wartime weapons testing is depicted in the 1945 photo below. Two 11.75" 'Tiny Tim' rockets are shown attached to an Armament Test Division F4U-1D that was also fitted with eight 5" high velocity aircraft rockets.
Tiny Tim and 5-inch rockets on Pax River Armament Test Division F4U-1D (Navy photo)
In the post-WW II era, Pax River's role in testing air-delivered weapons was largely unchanged from its wartime responsibilities. Eventually, however, the tasks of assessing weapons effectiveness and developing weapons tactics was largely shifted to the Operational Test community that came into prominence in the 1950s.
The post-war workload of Pax River's Naval Air Test Center (NATC) was dominated by its role as Naval Aviation's leader for the Developmental Testing (DT) of aircraft. On several occasions, though, NATC was tasked to oversee the DT of a new weapon. One example is NATC's lead role in the DT of prototype XASM-N-7 and YASM-N-7 Bullpup air-surface missiles (external link). Between 1955 and the late 1960s, NATC was continuously involved in testing Bullpup missiles as they evolved.
First fielded in 1959, the ASM-N-7 Bullpup (later designated AGM-12) was a pilot-guided, rocket-powered missile that, in Navy use, was principally intended for use on fixed land targets.
Bullpup in testing on an NATC A-4E (Navy photo)
Pax River's weapons testing responsibilities were officially expanded in 1957, when NATC was assigned responsibility for testing the air-delivered weapons designed at the nearby Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren (VA). Until that time, Dahlgren had operated its own small fleet of aircraft for testing ordnance on their Potomac River "Main Gun Range".
Since that time, though, the performance, reliability, and lethality of most naval air-delivered rockets, missiles, bombs, and mines have been tested less often at Pax River than on the west coast land and ocean ranges of the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) (external link).
Like its predecessor, NATC, the Naval Test Wing Atlantic (NTWL) today explores a weapon's compatibility with the strike aircraft that are intended to carry and employ it. Thus, a weapon's mechanical, electrical, and human interfaces, its aerodynamic effects, and so on, are common focus areas, as are the weapon's ability to be safely carried by the aircraft in combination with other underwing stores. Testing also explores the weapon's compatibility with the shipboard environment, including the weapon's ability to be safely catapulted from and recovered aboard a carrier when mounted on the aircraft.
As illustrated in the Navy images below, NATC and NTWL also test(ed) a weapon's ability to be safely released from the fighter or strike aircraft. Such testing by Pax River crews often occurs on the Atlantic Test Range, offshore from Pax River but may also be conducted on various DoD ranges in the western US.
A-6E from NATC's Strike Aircraft Test Division releasing Mk-20 Rockeye cluster bombs
NAWCAD F-14A releasing 1,000 lb Paveway bombs
NAWCAD F/A-18C releasing 1,000 lb Paveway bomb
NATC CH-53E launching AIM-9 Sidewinder missile
NATC A-4M about to release AGM-62 Walleye bombs
NAWCAD F-35C releasing AGM-154 JSOW bomb
. . . . . .
Sources include:
- "The Sound of Freedom - Naval Weapons Technology at Dahlgren, VA 1918 - 2006", Carlisle & Rife, 2006
- 'A New Dimension - Wallops Island Flight Test Range', Shortal, 1978
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Updated 21 Jan 2024. The material herein, excluding images, is copyright the author, Robert Tourville, and the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. Image copyrights are as noted.