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Defense and Aerospace Industry
One of the largest industries found in the Cerro Coso Community College (CCCC) service area
is aerospace and defense. According to Hamilton, Keough, Ratnatunga, and Wong (2015), the
aerospace and defense industry was listed in the top six industries of Kern County. Hamilton et
al. stated that the aerospace and defense was ranked high because of its output, employment
share, specialization, and growth. The three major aerospace and defense facilities served by
CCCC are China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS), Edwards Air Force Base (AFB),
and Mojave Air and Space Port.
China Lake NAWS (China Lake)
According to the US Navy, “China Lake provides and maintains land, facilities, and other assets
that support the Navy’s research, development, acquisition, testing, and evaluation (RDAT&E)
of cutting-edge weapons systems for the warfighter” (para. 1). The Navy states that China Lake
is the largest single land holding base. It represents 85% of the Navy’s RDAT&E. China Lake is
located to the north and east of the City of Ridgecrest. The base is over 1.1M acres with two
ordinance ranges. The US Navy reported the following team classifications at China Lake:
military personnel (2% @ 192 personnel), Department of Defense Civilians (71% @ 5,727
personnel), and contractors (27% @ 2,236 personnel). The occupation groups used at China
Lake are scientist and engineer (S&E), business and program management, technician specialist,
S&E technician, administrative support, and federal wage system. The base hires approximately
317 personnel on average per year.
Edwards AFB (Edwards)
Edwards is home to the Air Force Test Center, Air Force Test Pilot School, and NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center. The base is in the southeast corner of Kern County. Edwards
is the second largest Air Force base in the United States. According to the US Air Force (2022a),
the population of Edwards is 11,457. Here is the population breakdown: active-duty Air Force
personnel (2,207), Air Reserve and National Guard (37), civilian employees (4,302), contractors
(2,265), associates and non-appropriated funds (NAF) (education) (229), private businesses
(175), base exchange (138), and family members (2,104). US Air Force (2022b) reported the
following civilian hot jobs at Edwards: computer scientist, budget analyst, IT specialist,
computer engineer, recruitment and training manager, chief data officer, business and program
managers, financial specialist, family advocacy treatment manager, police officer, training
specialist, scheduler, engineer, aircraft maintenance, and electronics engineer.
Mojave Air and Space Port
The Mojave Air and Space Port is a 3,300-acre facility that includes an industrial park with over
70 transportation companies (Hamilton, Keough, Ratnatunga, and Wong, 2015). Some of the
larger well-known organizations located at the airport and industrial park include The Spaceship
Company, Masten Space Systems, Inc, Scaled Composites, LLC, Flight Test Associates, BAE
Systems, Interorbital Systems, Capsed Limited, Firestar Technologies, Cambium, Stratolaunch,
Northrop Grumman, Nexgen Aircraft Corporation, Incotec, Whittinghill Aerospace, and PPG
Aerospace.