US Navy Opens New Facility Supporting Nuclear Deterrence Efforts

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division has opened a new building in Virginia that will provide laboratories, offices and equipment for the scientists, engineers and technical experts working on the country’s Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Program.

Officials hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 1 at the NSWCDD Missile Support Facility, which will allow more than 300 of the division’s personnel to develop, test and maintain U.S. missile systems, the U.S. Navy announced Monday.

Present during the ceremony was Rep. Rob Wittman, House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee chairman, who told an audience made up mostly of SLBM employees that the new facility is “the opportunity and the tool that’s needed for each and every one of you to do the spectacular job that you do.”

Also present was Jeff Kunkler, NSWCDD deputy program director for SLBM, who said that the opening of the facility “expands our capacity to sustain our weapons system into the future, keeping the Navy on the cutting edge of weapons systems technology.”