Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake is a large military installation in California that supports the research, testing and evaluation programs of the United States Navy. It is part of Navy Region Southwest under Commander, Navy Installations Command, and was originally known as Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS). The installation is located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California, approximately north of Los Angeles. Occupying land in three counties – Kern, San Bernardino, and Inyo – the installation's closest neighbors are the city of Ridgecrest and the communities of Inyokern, Trona, and Darwin. China Lake is the United States Navy's largest single landholding, representing 85% of the Navy's land for weapons and armaments research, development, acquisition, testing and evaluation (RDAT&E) use and 38% of the Navy's land holdings worldwide. In total, its two ranges and main site cover more than , an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. As of 2010, at least 95% of that land has been left undeveloped. The roughly $3 billion infrastructure of the installation consists of 2,132 buildings and facilities, of paved roads, and of unpaved roads. The of restricted and controlled airspace at China Lake makes up 12% of California's total airspace. Jointly controlled by NAWS China Lake, Edwards Air Force Base and Fort Irwin, this airspace is known as the R-2508 Special Use Airspace Complex. A 7.1 magnitude earthquake on July 5, 2019, whose epicenter was within the boundaries of NAWS China Lake, resulted in the facility being temporarily evaluated as "not mission capable” due to damage. Armitage Field All aircraft operations at NAWS China Lake are conducted at Armitage Field, which has three runways with more than of taxiway. More than 20,000 crewed and uncrewed military sorties are conducted out of Armitage by U.S. Armed Forces each year. Foreign military personnel also use the airfield and range to conduct more than 1,000 test and evaluation operations each year. Tenant commands The 620 active duty military, 4,166 civilian employees and 1,734 contractors that make up China Lake's workforce are employed across multiple tenant commands, including: Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9 (VX-9) Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 31 (VX-31) Marine Aviation Detachment Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 3 Detachment Explosive Ordnance Disposal Testing and Evaluation Unit 1 Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest Detachment Naval Construction Training Center Port Hueneme (Seabees) History China Lake