Milestones of Innovation: Naval Torpedo Station to Naval Undersea Warfare Center Since 1869

Naval Torpedo Station, founded in 1869 on Goat Island off Newport, Rhode Island, as the Navys first experimental ordnance station for torpedoes, to its current incarnation as the Navys full-spectrum laboratory for undersea warfare, developing underwater technology, weapons, and integrated systems for submarine and surface combatants. A genealogy and timeline capture NUWCs evolution from predecessor organizations over 150 years. The inventions, achievements, and diverse workforce are depicted by decade, beginning with the artisanal weapons and launchers of the post-Civil War years and the industrial era and continuing through heavy production for two world wars, the workforce professionalization with mission changes, the early role of professional women, and the sophisticated integrated systems that met the challenges of the nuclear and Cold War erastorpedoes, launchers, sonar, periscopes, and antennasand test facilities from ice camps to anechoic chambers to deep-water test beds. The photographs are accompanied by detailed captions and narrative for historical context. The photographic history continues into the first decades of the 21st century with modern submarines, torpedoes, sonar, unmanned vehicles, stealth vehicles and weapons, and cyber warfare technology.