A proving ground is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain.

Military and government

Germany

* Peenemünde Army Research Centre, WW2 guided missile and rocket development and testing centre

Portugal

* Field Firing Range of Alcochete, Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, an artillery and bombing range facility opened in 1904, under Portuguese Air Force control since 1993, but also used by other military branches and law enforcement agencies for training purposes. With a surface area of 7,539 hectares, it is located roughly 30 km east of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

. This proving ground is planned to close and relocate (possibly to Mértola, Alentejo) owing to the construction of Luís de Camões Airport (planned to open in 2034).

Russia / Former Soviet Union

In Russia, a designated area is usually called a "polygon". * Kapustin Yar, aerial weapons and rocket test range used by the North Caucasus Military District * Totskoye Range, test range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, best known for the Totskoye nuclear exercise, 1954 * Yakutia Challenge, winter test proving ground in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia

South Korea

* Anheung Proving Ground, Taean County * Changwon Proving Ground, Changwon City * Darakdae Proving Ground, Pocheon City

Sweden

* Bofors Test Center

United States

In the United States, there are several military facilities that have been explicitly designated as proving grounds. * Aberdeen Proving Ground, a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

facility in Aberdeen, Maryland. It is the Army's oldest active proving ground, established on 20 October 1917, six months after the United States entered

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It was created so that design and testing of ordnance

materiel Materiel or matériel (; ) is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commerce, commercial supply chain management, supply chain context. Military In a military context, ...

could be carried out in proximity to the nation's industrial and shipping centers at the time. * Dugway Proving Ground, an active facility operated by the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command in the Great Salt Lake Desert of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. Dugway's mission is to test U.S. and Allied biological and chemical weapon defense systems. * Fort Belvoir Proving Ground, in Fairfax County, Virginia * Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center, located in Indian Head, Maryland and at one time called the Indian Head Proving Ground * Jefferson Proving Ground, in Madison, Indiana. It was principally a munitions testing facility of Test and Evaluation Command of the United States Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command. The facility was ordered closed in 1989 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. * Pacific Proving Grounds, an inactive U.S. Department of Energy area in the Marshall Islands that were established by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1946 for

nuclear weapons testing Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of Nuclear explosion, their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to si ...

. It mainly consists of Bikini Atoll, Enewetak Atoll & the surrounding area, and was deactivated in 1963. * Sandy Hook Proving Ground, in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, was the nation's first such facility. It was created in 1874 and was used as a proving ground until 1919. * Scituate Proving Ground, a former proving ground in Scituate, Massachusetts, operational from 1918 to 1921 * Yuma Proving Ground, a

facility situated in southwestern La Paz County and western Yuma County in southwestern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, approximately northeast of the city of Yuma. The proving ground is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles (3,387.2 km²) in the Sonoran Desert.

Automotive

Automotive proving grounds or automotive test tracks serve the

automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...

for road vehicle testing. In the automotive development process, vehicle manufacturers typically test the behaviour of vehicles in various environments and traffic situations. Conventional vehicle testing usually focuses on the dynamic properties of vehicles. Test tracks generally encompass the engineering tasks of vehicle testing and validation. With the advent of self-driving cars, new proving grounds specially dedicated for them have appeared, and existing conventional proving grounds have been retooled for the testing of highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles.

Automaker-owned

* Chrysler Proving Grounds * Ford Proving Grounds * General Motors Proving Grounds * Hyundai Ulsan proving ground * Hyundai Hwaseong proving ground * Hällered Proving Ground (

Volvo Cars Volvo Car AB, trading as Volvo Cars (, styled VOLVO in the company's logo) is a Sweden, Swedish multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles. Volvo is headquartered in Torslanda, Gothenburg. The company manufactures SUVs, station wagons, and ...

) * Mazda Proving Grounds * Nissan Proving Grounds * Nardò Ring ( Porsche) * Ehra-Lessien test track (

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

)

Independent

Source: * AUREL CZ polygon,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

* Applus+ IDIADA proving ground,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

* Arctic Falls Proving Grounds, several facilities and locations both outdoors and indoors in and around Älvsbyn,

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

4activeSystems
Test Track, Traboch,

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. An all-in-one test track next to 4activeSystems' headquarters, an testing equipment manufacturer for ADAS and autonomous driving. * AstaZero, claimed to have world's longest indoor track for testing "active" safety systems and autonomous technologies, Sandhult, Sweden * Baudette Proving Ground by Bosch, USA * Boxberg Proving Ground by Bosch, Germany * Bridgestone proving grounds, various locations * Colmis Proving Ground on land and frozen lake, Arjeplog, Sweden * Hwaseong Songsan proving ground,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

* Automotive Testing Papenburg,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

* Bruntingthorpe Airfield & Proving Ground,

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Digitrans
Automotive Proving Ground, St. Valentin,

* Donghai Proving Ground by Bosch, China * Flat Rock Proving Ground by Bosch, USA * HORIBA MIRA, United Kingdom * Lang Lang Proving Ground,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

* GoMentum Station,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

* Icemakers, Arjeplog, Sweden * Juvincourt Proving Ground by Bosch, France * Maxxis Proving Ground Test Track, Kunshan, China * Memanbetsu Proving Ground by Bosch, Japan * Michigan Technical Resource Park, USA * Millbrook Proving Ground, United Kingdom * Shiobara Proving Ground by Bosch, Japan * Sottozero Centre by Pirelli, Flurheden, Sweden * Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds,

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

* Tjintokk, Slagnäs, Sweden * Tolhuin Proving Ground by Bosch, Argentina * TRIWO Automotive Testing Center, near

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and

Saarbrücken Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...

, Germany
UTAC
headquartered in Linas-Montlhéry

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

where it operates Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry operational since 1924 the first of its eight proving grounds located in 10 countries. * Vaitoudden proving ground by Bosch, Sweden * Yakeshi Proving Ground by Bosch, China * ZalaZone Automotive Proving Ground,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

References

{{Authority control Military installations