United States Navy systems commands

The systems commands, abbreviated as SysCom or SYSCOM, are the materiel agencies of the United States Department of the Navy, responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of military systems such as ships, aircraft, and weapons. The systems commands replaced the Navy bureau system in 1966 and report to The current Navy systems commands reporting to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition (ASN RD&A). The current Navy systems commands are:

f the systems commands provides full life-cycle support for a specific category of military hardware or software, including research and development, design, procurement, testing, repair, and in-service engineering and logistics support. NAVSEA is concerned with ships and submarines, NAVAIR naval aircraft, SPAWAR information technology, NAVFAC shore facilities, NAVSUP supply chain management, and MCSC the specific equipment of the Marine Corps.

Patuxent River

The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River between the two. The 937-square-mile (2,427 km²) Patuxent watershed had a rapidly growing population of 590,769 in 2000. It is the largest and longest river entirely within Maryland, and its watershed is the largest completely within the state.

Geography

The river source, 115 miles (185 km) from the Chesapeake, is in the hills of the Maryland Piedmont near the intersection of four counties – Howard, Frederick, Montgomery and Carroll, and only 0.6 miles (0.97 km) from Parr's Spring, the source of the south fork of the Patapsco River. Flowing in a generally southeastward direction, the Patuxent crosses the urbanized corridor between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and opens up into a navigable tidal estuary near the colonial seaport of Queen Anne in Prince George's County, Maryland, just southeast of Bowie, finding the Chesapeake Bay 52 miles (84 km) later. The fifty-two mile-long tidal estuary is never wider than 2.3 miles (3.7 km).

Naval Air Systems Command

The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides material support for aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. NAVAIR was established in 1966 as the successor to the Navy's Bureau of Naval Weapons.

NAVAIR is headquartered in Patuxent River, Md., with military and civilian personnel stationed at eight locations across the continental United States and one site overseas.

NAVAIR's mission is to provide full life-cycle support of naval aviation aircraft, weapons and systems operated by Sailors and Marines. This support includes research, design, development and systems engineering, acquisition, test and evaluation, training facilities and equipment, repair and modification, and in-service engineering and logistics support.

NAVAIR is organized into eight "competencies" or communities of practice including: program management, contracts, research and engineering, test and evaluation, logistics and industrial operations, corporate operations, comptroller and counsel. NAVAIR provides support (through people, processes, tools, training, mission facilities, and core technologies) to Naval Aviation Program Executive Officers (PEOs) and their assigned program managers, who are responsible for meeting the cost, schedule, and performance requirements of their assigned programs.

Naval Air Station Patuxent River

Naval Air Station Patuxent River (IATA: NHK, ICAO: KNHK, FAA LID: NHK), also known as NAS Pax River, is a United States naval air station located in St. Mary's County, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River.

It is home to Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, the Atlantic Test Range, and serves as a center for test and evaluation and systems acquisition relating to naval aviation.

Commissioned on April 1, 1943, on land largely acquired through eminent domain, the air station grew rapidly in response to World War II and continued to evolve through the Cold War to the present.

History

Genesis: 1937

Situated on a peninsula between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patuxent River, NAS Patuxent River is located on 6,400 acres (26 km²) of what was once prime farmland, consisting of several large plantations, Mattapony, Susquehanna, and Cedar Point, as well as numerous tenant and sharecropper properties and a few clusters of vacation homes. The Cedar Point community included several churches, a post office, and a gas station. Some of the old homes now serve as quarters for Navy personnel stationed there.

Naval air station

A naval air station is a military airbase, and consists of a permanent land-based operations locations for the military aviation division of the relevant branch of a navy (Naval aviation). These bases are populated by squadrons and their support commands.

The term "Naval Air Station" is used by many countries' navies, such as the United States Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Indian Navy.

Argentine Navy

The Argentine Naval Aviation operates four Base Aeronaval (BAN): from BAN Punta Indio (BAPI) in Buenos Aires Province through BAN Comandante Espora (BACE) and BAN Almirante Zar (BAAZ) in Patagonia to BAN Almirante Quijada (BARD) at Tierra del Fuego. Runways also serve domestic airlines at almost all Argentine military airbases. The Navy operates Estacion Aeronaval (EAN) (stations) which have smaller crews and are not normally assigned aircraft. These include Ezeiza, Rio Gallegos and Ushuaia.

The Argentine Naval Prefecture, serving as a Coast Guard, also operates air stations at Posadas, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata and Comodoro Rivadavia. Aircraft operating out of these bases are heavily involved in sea rescues.