Navy's Pacific Missile Range (PMR) The Navy established the Naval Missile Facility at Point Arguello (NMFPA) after the transfer from the Army of 19,800 acres from the southern portion of Camp Cooke in May 1958. Camp Cooke was a World War II training and POW facility and a maximum security Disciplinary Barracks site. Cooke Air Force Base, later
Vandenberg Space Force Base, was established on 64,000 acres of the northern portion. The Secretary of Defense directed the Navy to establish the Pacific Missile Range (PMR) with headquarters at
Point Mugu and instrumentation sites along the California coast and downrange in the Pacific Ocean. Agreements between the Navy and the Air Force specified that nearly all launches from
Vandenberg Space Force Base were under the command and control of Navy and the PMR. A Pacific
Missile Impact Location System (MILS) was installed to support both
Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) and
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests. IRBM impacts were northeast of Hawaii and covered by a system terminating at the
Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay operational November 1958. The ICBM impacts required MILS monitoring between
Midway Island and
Wake Island and between Wake Island and
Eniwetok. Two target arrays and a Broad Ocean Area (BOA) array system were installed. The ICBM range was operational in May 1959 with two target arrays. MILS shore facilities were at Kaneohe and each of the islands.
Air Force — Western Test Range Secretary of Defense
Robert S. McNamara directed a restructure of the missile ranges on 16 November 1963 with an effective date of 1 July 1964. This restructure shifted responsibility of major sections of the Navy's Pacific Missile Range to the United States Air Force. In a final transfer, on 1 February 1965, the Air Force, with headquarters at Vandenberg Air Force Base, took control of
Pillar Point,
California, two sites in
Hawaii,
Canton Island,
Midway Island, and
Wake Island in the mid-Pacific as well as
Eniwetok and
Bikini Atoll in the
Marshall Islands. The Air Force also took control of the six range instrumented ships
Huntsville,
Longview,
Range Tracker,
Richfield,
Sunnyvale, and
Watertown. The Navy retained a missile test facility at
Point Mugu. In 1979, the name was shortened to simply the Western Test Range. == Notable launches ==