• Laboratories & Facilities
• Climatic Test
  Facilities
• Countermeasures
• Dynamic Testing
  and Facilities
• Electromagnetic Test
  Facilities
• Electronic Warefare
• Aerial Cable Range
• Chemistry Laboratory
• High Energy Laser
  Systems Test Facility
• Information Operations
  Laboratory
• Launch Facilities
• Metallurgy Laboratory
• Pulsed Laser Vulnerability
  Test System (PLVTS)
• Warheads Test Facilities &
  Impact Areas
• Hazardous Test Area
  (HTA)
• Warhead Impact Target
  (WIT)
• National Radar Cross
  Section Test Facility (NRTF)
• Holloman High Speed
  Test Track (HHSTT)
• Acoustic Research
  Complex (ARC)
• Space Facilities
• Airfields

 

Acoustic Research Complex

The Acoustic Research Complex (ARC) is a unique facility operated by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on WSMR. The ARC facility is the first of its kind within DoD and the research community as a whole. It is used to help with the design, modification, and increasing combat survivability of current and future aircraft. The ARC provides collection capabilities of three-dimensional (3D) acoustic data from operating aircraft that are not available anywhere else within DoD or in the private sector. This capability responds to a critical need for validation of existing predictive acoustic models. Such models are used for aircraft design, survivability, non-linear acoustic propagation research and assessing noise exposure to residents living adjacent to airfields. A large area microphone array, with sensors along the flight path as well as in the vertical, enable 3-D capture of the radiated acoustics for any air vehicle. The ARC measures the noise radiated in all three dimensions simultaneously under various operational dynamic flight conditions. The measurement station consists of microphone locations near the ground and acoustically instrumented tall towers for rotary wing, UAV, fixed wing heavy, and high performance aircraft.