A legacy of undersea warfare innovation: NUWC Division, Keyport Hawthorne Site 50th anniversary series

Photo By Peter Clute | Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport’s Hawthorne Operating Site, located in Hawthorne, Nevada, marks its 50th anniversary this November. (U.S. Navy graphic by Peter Clute)  

KEYPORT, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES

05.05.2026

Story by Frank Kaminski 

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport’s Hawthorne Operating Site, located in Hawthorne, Nevada, marks its 50th anniversary this November. For five decades, the site has been a cornerstone of U.S. naval undersea dominance, providing capabilities ranging from in-service mine logistics to depot-level repair to demilitarization to precious metals reclamation.

The facility, which now operates as a tenant of Hawthorne Army Depot, was built on a rich legacy. The depot itself was created by a 1928 executive order signed by President Calvin Coolidge. It was officially designated the Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne in 1930 and served as a crucial manufacturing and staging area for bombs, rockets and underwater mines for the Pacific theater during World War II, becoming the largest facility of its kind in the world.

In the depot’s heyday, the nearby community of Babbitt was a bustling military housing community with its own movie theater, grocery store, bowling alley, schools, police department, post office and even its own zip code.

The Hawthorne Operating Site was established in 1976 as the Mines Logistics Depot, a detachment of the Naval Mine Warfare Engineering Facility in Yorktown, Virginia.

The site had what Jerry Williams, a retired Navy master chief mineman who served as its site manager from 2017 to 2024, called a “mineman” mindset, or one focused on figuring out how to get a job done rather than on whether it can be done. Williams said this independent spirit was a hallmark of the mine warfare community.

"The mine warfare community was allowed to kind of do its own thing," he said. "We had our own books, our own manuals, our own supply."

In 1977, just a year after the Hawthorne Operating Site was founded, the depot was transferred to the U.S. Army, and the Navy facility became a tenant command on the base. In 1992, as the Navy reorganized its Warfare Centers, the Naval Mine Warfare Engineering Facility in Yorktown was shuttered, and the Hawthorne Operating Site was officially transferred to the command of NUWC Division, Keyport, becoming the Mines Logistics Brand within the Undersea Weapons Department’s Ordnance and Mines Division.

As the mine force’s mission evolved through the Cold War and into the 1990s, the Hawthorne site faced an uncertain future. The shift from older, repairable vacuum-tube technology to complex micro-circuits meant there was a dwindling mission set for a workforce skilled in traditional repair. By the time Williams arrived in 2017, he had a clear mandate: revitalize the operating site or oversee its closure.

To ensure the site's long-term viability, Williams sought to expand its portfolio and attract new customers by highlighting its unique advantages: large storage capacity and lower operating costs. The facility has more than 650,000 square feet of secure indoor and outdoor storage, ideal for storing mines, ammunition and other sensitive materials due to Nevada’s dry climate. Its lower operating costs are a result of the operating site's rural location and low overhead.

Today, the Hawthorne Operating Site's four primary missions are logistics and supply, demilitarization, depot-level repair for the mine force—which includes assets like the Quick-Strike mine, MK-67 Submarine Launched Mobile Mine and various MK-series mines—and silver reclamation from batteries. It is now the sole mines depot for the Navy and supports more than a dozen customers, including the Vertical Launch System program and demilitarization work for all U.S. military branches.

The Hawthorne Operating Site's mission has expanded to include repairing Fleet assets and supporting Fleet training. It supports training by converting older assets into inert training models used by camera systems, marine mammals, and Sea, Air and Land teams. Its workforce has also expanded, from 10 government employees and five contractors in 2017 to 13 government employees and 15 contractors today.

Both past and present employees praised the site’s collaborative culture and strong sense of mission.

"It was the best place I ever worked," said Eugene (“Gene”) Brown, a retired electronics mechanic who worked at the Hawthorne Operating Site between 1983 and 2011. "When a team finished one job, they would go help another team get their job done."

As the Hawthorne Operating Site looks toward its next 50 years, it remains focused on driving innovation and maintaining readiness.

"Moving forward, we want to continue our role as a depot and move into the new assets that are coming out," said Tyler Viani, current operating site manager. "We want to be the premier location for whatever maintenance is needed."

For Viani, whose father also worked at the Hawthorne Operating Site, the work is personal: "I actually feel like I am truly supporting that warfighter, that Fleet member who needs us. When assets leave here, they’re going right into the hands of the men and women who protect us."


-KPT-
NUWC Division, Keyport provides advanced technical capabilities for test and evaluation, in-service engineering, maintenance and industrial base support, fleet material readiness, and obsolescence management for undersea warfare to expand America’s undersea dominance.

• Date Taken: 05.05.2026
• Date Posted: 05.05.2026 14:25
• Story ID: 564420
• Location: KEYPORT, WASHINGTON, US