Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC)

Naval Base Ventura County is a United States Navy installation in Ventura County, California, on the Oxnard Plain of the Southern California coast, roughly 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Operated by the Navy under Navy Region Southwest, it comprises three separate sites: the airfield and test facility at Point Mugu, the deep-water port and construction battalion centre at Port Hueneme, and San Nicolas Island in the Channel Islands. The base provides the Pacific Fleet with a combined mobilisation site, deep-water port, railhead and airfield, and hosts more than 100 tenant commands.

Point Mugu is home to the Commander, Airborne Command Control and Logistics Wing, with Airborne Command and Control Squadrons 113, 115, 116 and 117 operating the West Coast E-2C and E-2D Hawkeyes, together with Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 55, Naval Test Wing Pacific and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 30. Other tenants include the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, Fleet Readiness Center Southwest Site Point Mugu, and the U.S. Space Force's 10th Space Operations Squadron, which controls the Mobile User Objective System and UHF Follow-On satellite constellations. Coast Guard Air Station Ventura, commissioned on 13 November 2024, operates MH-60T helicopters from a purpose-built hangar. Port Hueneme is the West Coast homeport of the Seabees, hosting the 1st Naval Construction Regiment, Naval Construction Group One, Naval Mobile Construction Battalions Three, Four and Five, Underwater Construction Team 2, Navy Cargo Handling Battalion 14, the Naval Construction Training Center, the Civil Engineer Corps Officers School, the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division and the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center.

Point Mugu has two asphalt runways and shares them with the California Air National Guard's 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station; its air traffic control facility includes a TRACON serving Camarillo and Oxnard airports. The base anchors a 36,000-square-mile sea test range, with telemetry and tracking instrumentation at San Nicolas Island, Point Mugu and Laguna Peak. San Nicolas Island holds Naval Outlying Landing Field San Nicolas Island, whose runway accepts aircraft up to C-5 size, along with radar, electro-optical and telemetry equipment and missile and target launch areas. Port Hueneme is the only deep-water port between Los Angeles and San Francisco and has 16 miles of rail for military freight handling. Warehousing at the base holds supplies and repair equipment for destroyers, frigates and cruisers.

Point Mugu began as a Seabee training area in 1941 and an anti-aircraft training centre, becoming the Navy's principal missile development and test facility in the late 1940s. Port Hueneme opened on 18 May 1942 as the Advance Base Depot, renamed the Naval Construction Battalion Center in 1945. The two commands were consolidated into Naval Base Ventura County on 11 October 2000, and San Nicolas Island was transferred to the base on 1 October 2004.