Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division inducted 24 scientists and engineers into its Fellows Program during a July 28 ceremony at China Lake and Point Mugu, California.
NAWCWD linked the two sites by video.
The 2026 class includes 22 Associate Fellows: 19 at China Lake and three at Point Mugu. Two China Lake employees received Esteemed Fellow honors.
Command leaders do not vote. Existing Fellows choose the inductees.
Associate Fellows represent the top 3% of NAWCWD’s roughly 3,500 scientists and engineers. Candidates must also have at least 10 years at the command.
Fellows represent the top 0.75%, and Esteemed Fellows represent the top 0.25%.
NAWCWD established the current program in 2020, continuing roughly 40 years of technical peer recognition that ran through Pacific Missile Test Center, Naval Weapons Center, the original NAWCWD program and Naval Air Systems Command.
Dan Radke, the longest-serving chief test engineer in Naval Air Systems Command history and a NAVAIR Esteemed Fellow since 2013, opened the ceremony.
The original NAWCWD program inducted him in the same room at Point Mugu in 1997.
“It’s very difficult to get recognized for purely technical merit,” Radke said. “That’s really what the Fellows Program is about.”
The program recognizes technical accomplishments and the responsibility employees take for their work, not the size of their budgets or teams.
Across the class, inductees model warhead performance and develop explosives, propellants and solid-fuel ramjet propulsion. They design missile fuzes, process radio signals and apply artificial intelligence. They also analyze shock and vibration and bring complex systems together.
Their work helps NAWCWD design, test and integrate weapons for the warfighter. Together, they bring more than 350 years of experience at the command.
Rear Adm. Keith Hash, NAWCWD commander, presented awards at China Lake. Executive Director Dan Carreño presented awards at Point Mugu.
“You were that new engineer one day, and you spent the time bringing up that next generation,” Hash said. “Now we get to celebrate you, the graybeards of our organization. You are the ones guiding the way.”
Carreño closed the ceremony, saying he was humbled by the command’s “technical horsepower.”
“This is peer recognition,” he said. “This is coming directly from the workforce, from your colleagues.”
Carreño said organization charts cannot replace the technical knowledge NAWCWD brings to warfighters.
“You make us proud,” he said. “You make our warfighters lethal and effective.”
| Date Taken: |
07.30.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
07.30.2026 16:43 |
| Story ID: |
571165 |
| Location: |
POINT MUGU NAWC, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: |
21 |
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