Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland

Located on a peninsula in Chesapeake Bay, Naval Air Station Patuxent River is one of the nation's premier facilities for the testing and evaluation of naval manned and unmanned aircraft, engines, avionics, sensors, and support systems. It is home to the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the Naval Air Warfare Center, Aircraft Division (which has a sister site, the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division at China Lake, California), and Naval Test Wing Atlantic. The roughly 14,000-acre base has 10 hangars, 5 runways, as well as various testing facilities including a manned flight simulator, a large anechoic chamber, an electronic warfare test laboratory, computer center, a thermophysiology lab, horizontal accelerator, radar-cross section facilities, and an aircraft carrier deck test facility. Also available is the 2,700-square mile Patuxent Special Use Airspace, which can be expanded to include an additional 50,000 square miles of offshore air and sea space as needed.