Wallops Island Surface Combat Systems Center, Virginia
Surface Combat Systems Center (SCSC) is co-located with NASA at the Wallops Flight Facility. SCSC is a highly sophisticated facility uniquely located in a rural setting on the beautiful Eastern Shore of Virginia, which is famous for its wildlife refuge and unspoiled shorelines. The CAPT Eric L. Washam AEGIS Engineering and Training Complex and the Ships Self Defense Systems Facility are located on the oceanfront of Wallops Island, where each contains sufficient equipment to duplicate the combat systems of all operational Cruisers, Destroyers, Amphibious and Carriers. With these capabilities, SCSC is becoming known as "The Battle Group in the Sand."
SCSC's Headquarters complex, Bachelor Quarters, Combined Dining Facility, Navy Exchange and Navy family housing units are located just south of the NASA main gate and are designed to co-exist in the tranquil environment of the Eastern Shore.
Our mission is to provide integrated warfare systems in a maritime environment for fleet operations, engineering, development, testing, and training. SCSC is an Echelon III Navy command under the Program Executive Officer, Integrated Warfare Systems. SCSC also supports the Center for Surface Combat Systems Detachment Wallops Island, a detachment of Center for Surface Combat Systems, Dahlgren, Virginia. Surface Combat Systems Center was previously AEGIS Combat Systems Center.
SCSC is comprised of a hard charging team of over 300 military, civilian and contractor personnel all working together to provide highly technical engineering and training support to the fleet.
Wallops Island is named after John Wallop, a 17th century surveyor and original owner of the island. The island has been used for grazing livestock, as a hunting preserve, and as a location for a Coast Guard Station. The Navy commissioned the Chincoteague Naval Air Station on the present site of the Wallops Main Base and established the Naval Aviation Ordnance Test Station on Wallops Island in 1941. In 1958, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was absorbed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Navy ceased operations at the Chincoteague Naval Air Station and Naval Aviation Ordnance Test Station. NASA acquired the naval facilities as part of their planned expansion. Since then, NASA has launched numerous research vehicles in the quest for information of the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, spacecraft, and upper atmosphere physics. This research has contributed and is contributing significantly to the success of the U.S. space program. Additionally, 19 satellites have been launched from Wallops Island, 16 of which remain in orbit.
The Navy returned to Wallops Island in the early 1980's, to start construction and development of Surface Combat Systems Center. Today in joint partnership with NASA, NOAA, and the USCG, Wallops Island has capabilities that will extend far into the future to make Wallops Island a leading competitor in state of the art technologies.