Yuma

Proving Ground 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. The ...

(YPG) is 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 ...

series of environmentally specific test centers with its Yuma Test Center (YTC) being one of the largest

military installation A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and Military operation, operations. A military base always provides ...

s in the world. It is subordinate to the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command. YPG's headquarters is located at its YTC in southwestern La Paz County and western Yuma County in southwest

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 ...

, United States, approximately north of the city of Yuma.Yuma Proving Ground census blocks, Census Tract 206, La Paz County and Census Tract 105, Yuma County, Arizona
United States Census Bureau Facilities are located at the Colonel George W. Howard Cantonment Area (support facilities), the General Walton H. Walker Cantonment Area (headquarters facilities), and the Kofa Cantonment Area (range facilities). Of the four extreme natural environments recognized as critical in the testing of military equipment, three fall under the management authority of YPG. Realistic natural environment testing ensures that American military equipment performs as advertised, wherever deployed around the world. YPG manages military equipment and munitions testing at three locations: The Arctic Regions Test Center at Fort Greely, Alaska;ARTC U.S. Army Arctic Regions Test Center
atec.army.mil, last accessed 18 September 2024 the Tropic Regions Test Center operating in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

;Tropic Regions Test Center
International Test and Evaluation Association; by Lance VanderZyl Director, Tropic Regions Test Center, U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona; dated 2008, last accessed 27 July 2019 and at YTC. The common link between these test centers is "environmental testing," which makes the proving ground the Army's environmental test expert.

History

The presence of the U.S. Army in Yuma goes back to 1850, when Fort Yuma was constructed on a hill overlooking the important Yuma crossing of the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

. Soldiers at Fort Yuma maintained peace and protected the important

Yuma Crossing Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also duri ...

, which was used by thousands of travelers each year.Yuma Proving Ground Continues Area's Army History
yuma.army.mil, last accessed 22 November 2018 The Army constructed a second facility in 1865, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, to act as a supply base for Army posts throughout Arizona and parts of New Mexico. Supplies were delivered by riverboats and transported from the depot to military outposts by wagon. After Fort Yuma and the Yuma Quartermaster Depot closed in the 1880s, the Army did not return to Yuma on a permanent basis until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Yuma Proving Ground traces its history to Camp Laguna and the Army Corps of Engineers Yuma Test Branch, both activated in 1943. Located on the Colorado River, the Yuma Test Branch conducted testing on combat bridges,

amphibious vehicle An amphibious vehicle (or simply amphibian) is a vehicle that works both on land and on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious Amphibious cycle, bicycles, Amphibious ATV, ATVs, Amphibious automobile, cars, Duckboats, buses, truc ...

s, and boats. Tens of thousands of mechanized and infantry soldiers were trained at Camp Laguna for duty at combat fronts throughout the world, from

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

to the South Pacific. Abandoned campsites and tank trails can still be found on the proving ground. Camp Laguna lasted only until the end of World War II. The Yuma Test Branch was closed in 1949 and reactivated two years later as the Yuma Test Station, under the operational control of the Sixth U.S. Army. In 1962, the station was named Yuma Proving Ground and reassigned to the U.S. Army Materiel Command as an important component of the Test and Evaluation Command. On 26 July 1973, it officially received its full name – U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground. The following year it was designated as a

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

Major Range and Test Facility Base. Since its early days, Yuma Proving Ground has been a desert environmental test center for all types of military equipment and materiel. However, developmental and a variety of other types of testing of artillery systems and ammunition, aircraft armament and targeting systems, mobility equipment, and air delivery systems, not necessarily desert environmental-related, now comprise the bulk of the workload. A heavy investment in technology and a highly skilled soldier-civilian workforce makes the proving ground a significant social and economic component of the local community.

Yuma Test Center

United States Army Yuma Proving Ground Range Map

YTC encompasses 1,307.8 square miles (3,387.2 km²) of the northwestern

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

and conducts tests on nearly every weapon in the ground combat

arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Nearly all the long-range artillery testing for U.S. ground forces takes place at the YTC in an area almost completely removed from urban encroachment and noise concerns.

Restricted airspace Restricted airspace is an area of airspace typically used by the military in which the local controlling authorities have determined that air traffic must be restricted or prohibited for safety or security concerns. It is one of many types of s ...

controlled by the test center amounts to over . YTC has the longest overland artillery range () in the nation, the most highly instrumented

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

armament test range in the

, over of improved road courses for testing tracked and wheeled military vehicles, over of

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

cable linking test locations, and the most modern mine and

demolition Demolition (also known as razing and wrecking) is the science and engineering in safely and efficiently tearing down buildings and other artificial structures. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction (building), deconstruction, which inv ...

s test facility in the western hemisphere. Realistic villages and road networks representing urban areas in Southwest Asia have been constructed and are used for testing counter-measures to the threat of roadside bombs. It is estimated that the track can be used to test about 80 percent of the Army's wheeled vehicle fleet. More than 3,000 people, mostly civilians, work at YTC, which is the largest employer in Yuma County. In a typical year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar and

missile A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor. Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...

rounds are fired, 36,000

parachute A parachute is a device designed to slow an object's descent through an atmosphere by creating Drag (physics), drag or aerodynamic Lift (force), lift. It is primarily used to safely support people exiting aircraft at height, but also serves va ...

drops take place, are driven on military vehicles, and over 4,000 air sorties are flown from YTC's Laguna Army Airfield. About 10 percent of the YTC's workload is training. In a typical year, dozens of units come to the facility for realistic desert training, especially before deploying overseas. YTC's clean air, low humidity, skimpy

rainfall Rain is a form of precipitation where water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. ...

– only about per year – and annual average of 350 sunny days, add up to almost perfect testing and training conditions. Urban encroachment and noise concerns are nonexistent problems, unlike at many other military installations. YTC tests

improvised explosive devices An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional warfare, conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached t ...

, commonly known as IEDs, the number-one killer of American service men and women in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Hundreds of

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s fly at the proving ground each year from the six airfields located at YTC, as do helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft conducting personnel and

cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

parachute drops. Many friendly foreign nations also visit YTC to conduct test programs.Piranhas swim at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground
army.mil, by Mr. Mark Schauer (ATEC), dated 5 September 2017, last accessed 22 November 2018 The General Motors Desert Proving Ground – Yuma opened at YTC in late July 2009. General Motors built the facility at a cost of more than $100 million after closing its desert automotive test facility in Mesa, Arizona, that had been in operation since 1953. The new facility allows General Motors and Army automotive testers to test their wheeled vehicles all year-round. YTC offers the following for testing, evaluation, and training purposes: * Ground weapons systems from small arms to long range artillery * Helicopter armament and target acquisition systems * Artillery and

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; ...

munitions * Cargo and personnel parachutes, including guided systems technologies *

Land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

s and mine-removal systems * Tracked and wheeled vehicles in a desert environment *

Vibration Vibration () is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. Vibration may be deterministic if the oscillations can be characterised precisely (e.g. the periodic motion of a pendulum), or random if the os ...

and interference-free tests of smart weapon systems * Laguna Army Airfield complex, featuring two runways – and . * 12 drop zones and multiple

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

s for Unmanned Aerial Systems * A overland artillery range, the longest in the nation * Over of improved road courses for tracked and wheeled vehicles * State-of-the-art

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

s systems to acquire, reduce and transmit data in real time * Specialized facilities for testing countermeasures for the defeat of roadside bombs, such as the National Counterterrorism/Counterinsurgency Integrated Test and Evaluation site

Tropic Regions Test Centers

Arctic Regions Test Center

Demographics

Yuma Proving Ground is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) covering the population of the Howard

Cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a type of military base. In South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British Raj). In United States military parlance, a cantonment is, essentially, "a permanent residential ...

at Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma County,

. It first appeared as a CDP in the 2020 Census with a population of 313.

2020 census

Education

Yuma Proving Ground is served by the Yuma Elementary School District and the Yuma Union High School District. Yuma Elementary School District operates Price Elementary School on base.

Climate

References

External links

* {{Coord, 33, 01, 04, N, 114, 15, 09, W, display=title, region:US-AZ_type:landmark_source:dewiki Buildings and structures in La Paz County, Arizona Buildings and structures in Yuma County, Arizona United States Army posts Military installations in Arizona Proving grounds 1943 establishments in Arizona Historic American Engineering Record in Arizona