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ReseaRch a n d developmenT In T h e na v y 51
not conceptualize and develop its own weapon systems but instead received
materials for testing and evaluation from other service facilities, such as the
Naval Ordnance Laboratory, or from industrial contractors. This tradition
of ordnance proofing and testing can be traced back to 1872, when the Navy
established its first proving ground in Annapolis, Maryland. In 1890, the proving
ground transferred from Annapolis to Indian Head, Maryland, located next to
the Naval Powder Factory on the shores of the Potomac River about twenty
miles south of Washington, D.C. 46 All types of naval guns, bombs, gunpowder,
projectiles, armor, fuzes, and cartridge cases were tested at Indian Head until the
end of World War I, when space limitations prompted the Bureau of Ordnance
to search for a larger location. The testing requirements for newer long-range
guns and the continuous expansion of the powder factory made such a move
especially urgent. Construction of facilities at Dahlgren began in the spring of
1918, and, by 1923, the new proving ground was in full operation.
Shortly after Dahlgren opened, management established an experimental
department, headed by a civilian Ph.D. physicist, to conduct routine testing of
ordnance materials. 47 Tight budgets during the interwar period precluded a major
expansion of the department, but diversification of the testing program continued,
albeit slowly. In 1936, the experimental department became the experimental
laboratory, and its major functions focused on bomb calibration, exterior ballistics,
velocity measurements, and armament tests. Four years later, Dahlgren set up a
separate armor and projectile laboratory to support additional testing functions
and also to conduct metallurgical research. Technical investigations expanded
at both laboratories during World War II along two separate but related lines:
(1) routine acceptance testing of materials and development of new testing and
evaluation procedures, and (2) prosecution of R&D to improve the performance
of weapons and armor. 48
After World War II, Dahlgren’s traditional testing and proofing activities
continued, often expanding during major conflicts, such as the Korean and
Vietnam wars, and then contracting in peacetime. Although this cyclical
behavior often caused anxiety among administrators, who feared that closure of
the installation was imminent, a crucial reprieve came in the 1950s in the form
of a major expansion into electronics and high-speed computing to support the
Navy’s new fleet ballistic missile program. The aggressive move into electronic
computing was by no means arbitrary. Rather, it complemented Dahlgren’s longstanding
expertise in ballistics testing and evaluation, and it also tracked the
larger postwar transformation of naval weapons technology from conventional
ordnance to missiles and rockets, jet aircraft, and nuclear weapons. The transition
from proofing to R&D manifested itself in the establishment of new programs to
explore the latest developments in fire control, electronics, optics, ballistics, and
46 On the Naval Powder Factory, see Rodney P. Carlisle, Powder and Propellants: Energetic Materials at
Indian Head, Maryland, 1890–2001, 2d ed. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2002).
47 The first director of the experimental department was Louis Thompson, a ballistics expert who had
received his Ph.D. in physics from Clark University in 1917.
48 D. I. Hedrick, “Research and Experimental Activities of the U.S. Naval Proving Ground,” Journal of
Applied Physics 15 (March 1944): 262; Christman, Sailors, Scientists, and Rockets, 4–5, 55, 63–64.