Naval Base Point Loma (NBPL) is located in Point Loma, a neighborhood of

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. It was established on 1 October 1998 when Navy facilities in the Point Loma area of San Diego were consolidated under Commander,

Navy Region Southwest Navy Region Southwest is one of eleven current naval regions responsible to Commander, Navy Installations Command for the operation and management of Naval shore installations in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, ...

. Naval Base Point Loma consists of seven facilities: Submarine Base, Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (previously Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Command), Fleet Combat Training Center Pacific,

Naval Information Warfare Systems Command The Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWARSYSCOM), based in San Diego, is one of six SYSCOM Echelon II organizations within the United States Navy and is the Navy's technical authority and acquisition command for C4ISR (Command, Contr ...

(NAVWAR), Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific, the Fleet Intelligence Command Pacific and Naval Consolidated Brig, Miramar. These close-knit commands form a diverse and highly technical hub of naval activity. The on-base population is around 22,000 Navy and civilian personnel.

History

The history of Point Loma Naval Base begins in 1795. The Spanish began building a fort at the base of Point Guijarros, opposite the tip of North Island (Coronado). This fort was built on the land which is today known as Ballast Point.

Fort Guijarros Fort Guijarros (Spanish "Castillo de Guijarros" ) was a Spanish fort in what is now San Diego, California, USA. Its name means "Fort Cobblestones" in English. It was built in 1797 on Ballast Point as the first defensive fortifications for San Die ...

was later finished in 1798 and then abandoned by the Mexicans in 1845. In 1846 United States Capt. Samuel Du Pont, entered the abandoned land where the fort once stood and raised the American flag. Shortly after in 1848 the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( es, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo), officially the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States, is the peace treaty that was signed on 2 ...

ended the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

and the Americans claimed Point Loma. In February 1852 President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

set aside the southern portion of Point Loma of about for

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

purposes. Subsequently, it was assigned to the U.S. Army and named
Fort Rosecrans
, after

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

William Rosecrans, an 1842 graduate of the

U.S. Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

. In 1898 the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

built a coast artillery installation on the site which remained active until 1945, when the University of California Division of War Research and the Navy Radio and Sound Laboratory occupied the site as the

Navy Electronics Laboratory The U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory (''NEL'') was created in 1945, with consolidation of the naval radio station, radar operators training school, and radio security activity of the Navy Radio and Sound Lab (NRSL) and its wartime partner, the U ...

(NEL). NEL was renamed the Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC) in 1977 and incorporated into the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in 1997. In 1932, the site of Fort Rosecrans was registered as

California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

#62. From February 1940 through October 1944 Fort Rosecrans was garrisoned by the 19th Coast Artillery Regiment. Submarine Group, San Diego was established in 1946, and Submarine Flotilla 1 was activated in 1949. In 1959 Fort Rosecrans was turned over to the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. The Navy Submarine Support Facility was established in November 1963 on of the land. Bathyscaphe Trieste arrived at NEL in 1958; and modified

Bathyscaphe Trieste II ''Trieste II'' (DSV-1) was the successor to ''Trieste''—the United States Navy's first bathyscaphe purchased from its Swiss designers. History The original ''Trieste'' design was heavily modified by the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Die ...

was based here from 1965 to 1984. On 27 November 1974 the base was re-designated a shore command, serving assigned submarines, Submarine Group Five, Submarine Squadron Three, Submarine Development Group One, the Submarine Training Facility and later, Submarine Squadron Eleven. On 1 October 1981 the base was designated as Naval Submarine Base San Diego (NAVSUBASE San Diego). Starting in April 1995, several commands were decommissioned or their homeports were changed to meet the post-

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

downsizing requirements of the Navy. Commands throughout San Diego were regionalized in an effort to provide equal or better base services while managing a reduced budget. The six naval installations on Point Loma were consolidated as Naval Base Point Loma on 1 October 1998.

Gallery

Naval Health Research Center Point Loma 2014

Tenants

Homeported submarines

* * * *

Torpedo Weapons Retrievers

Devil Ray (TWR-6) Devil ray may refer to: * Rays of the genus ''Mobula'', cartilaginous fish including: ** Pygmy devil ray, ''Mobula eregoodootenkee'' ** Lesser devil ray, ''Mobula hypostoma'' ** Spinetail mobula, ''Mobula japanica'' ** Shortfin devil ray, ''Mobu ...

The Devil Ray (ATWR-6) was transferred to the Naval Research Laboratory in early 2021 and now is home ported at NRL's Chesapeake Bay Detachment (NRL CBD) in Chesapeake Beach, MD. It is expected to be refitted to support NRL research efforts during the remainder of 2021. *

Swamp Fox (TWR-821) Swamp Fox may refer to: People * Francis Marion, American Revolution leader * Marion Campbell, American football player and coach * Alvin Dark, baseball player and manager * J. J. Dickison, colonel in the Confederate States Army during the America ...

Narwhal (TWR-842) The narwhal, also known as a narwhale (''Monodon monoceros''), is a medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large "tusk" from a protruding canine tooth. It lives year-round in the Arctic waters around Greenland, Canada and Russia. It is o ...

Major commands

*Commander,

U.S. Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

Naval Mine and Anti-Submarine Warfare Command A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

– Effective 1 October 2006, COMINEWARCOM (CMWC) and FLTASWCOM were merged and renamed as Naval Mine And Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (NMAWC). Pending NMAWC Corpus Christi (PLA: NMAWC Corpus Christi TX) relocation associated with BRAC action, NMAWC was multi-sited with the commander and Vice Commander and headquarters in San Diego (PLA: NMAWC San Diego CA). FLTASWCOM DET NORFOLK is renamed NMAWC DET NORFOLK VA (PLA: NMAWC DET Norfolk VA). NMAWC San Diego, in addition to commander NMAWC duties, continues to focus on ASW matters. NMAWC Corpus Christi continues to focus on MIW matters. Additionally, NMAWC Corpus Christi continues to function as the flag officer commanding the deployable mine warfare battle staff, providing technical advice, and conducting mine warfare operations as required; and coordinates the sourcing for the MCMRONS and MIW Triad Forces (AMCM/UMCM/SMCM). * Submarine Squadron 11 * Military Sealift Command, Pacific

Notes

External links

Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center

Harbor Defenses of San Diego at the Coast Defense Study Group website
{{Coord, 32, 40, 37, N, 117, 14, 41, W, display=title Point Loma Military in San Diego Military facilities in San Diego County, California William Rosecrans Point Loma, San Diego San Diego Bay Point Loma