Proving ground

A proving ground (US) is an installation or reservation in which technology such as weapons, military tactics and automobile prototypes are experimented with or tested. Proving grounds can be operated by government bodies or civilian industries. They are distinct from military training areas which are run by the military and intended for the routine training and exercising of troops across the terrain.

Military and government

Germany

Peenemünde Army Research Centre, WW2 guided missile and rocket development and testing centre

Republic of Korea

Anheung Proving Ground, Taean County (36.680° 126.200°)^[1]^[2]

Russia/former Soviet Union

In Russia, a designated area is usually called a "polygon" (Полигон).

Kapustin Yar, aerial weapons and rocket test range used by the North Caucasus Military District
Totskoye range, test range in the Urals where nuclear tests were carried out in 1954
YakutiaChallenge, winter test proving ground in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia^{[citation needed]}

North America

United States

In the United States, there are several military facilities that have been explicitly designated as proving grounds.

Aberdeen Proving Ground, a United States Army facility in Aberdeen, Maryland. It is the Army's oldest active proving ground, established on October 20, 1917, six months after the United States entered World War I. It was created so that design and testing of ordnance materiel could be carried out in proximity to the nation's industrial and shipping centers at the time.
Dugway Proving Ground, an active facility operated by the United States Army Test and Evaluation Command in the Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah. Dugway's mission is to test U.S. and Allied biological and chemical weapon defense systems.
Fort Belvoir Proving Ground, in Fairfax County, Virginia
Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center, located in Indian Head, Maryland and at one time called the Indian Head Proving Ground
Jefferson Proving Ground, in Madison, Indiana. It was principally a munitions testing facility of Test and Evaluation Command of the United States Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command. The facility was ordered closed in 1989 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.
Pacific Proving Grounds, an inactive U.S. Department of Energy area in the Marshall Islands that were established by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in 1946 for nuclear weapons testing. It mainly consists of Bikini Atoll, Enewetak Atoll & the surrounding area, and was deactivated in 1963.
Sandy Hook Proving Ground, in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, was the nation's first such facility. It was created in 1874 and was used as a proving ground until 1919.
Scituate Proving Ground, a former proving ground in Scituate, Massachusetts, operational from 1918 to 1921
Yuma Proving Ground, a United States Army facility situated in southwestern La Paz County and western Yuma County in southwestern Arizona, approximately 30 miles (48 km) northeast of the city of Yuma. The proving ground is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles (3,387.2 km²) in the Sonoran Desert.

Automotive

Automotive proving grounds^[3] or automotive test tracks serve the automotive industry for road vehicle testing. In the automotive development process, vehicle manufacturers typically test the behaviour of vehicles in various environments and traffic situations. Conventional vehicle testing usually focuses on the dynamic properties of vehicles. Test tracks generally encompass the engineering tasks of vehicle testing and validation.

With the advent of self-driving cars, new proving grounds specially dedicated for them have appeared, and existing conventional proving grounds have been retooled for the testing of highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles.^{[citation needed]}

Automaker-owned

Chrysler Proving Grounds
Ford Proving Grounds
General Motors Proving Grounds
((Hyundai Ulsan proving ground))
((Hyundai Hwaseong proving ground 현대,기아 화성주행시험장 ))
Mazda Proving Grounds
Nissan Proving Grounds
Nardò Ring (Porsche)
Ehra-Lessien test track (Volkswagen)

Independent

Source: ^[4]

Applus+ IDIADA proving ground, Spain
4activeSystems Test Track, Traboch, Austria. An all-in-one test track next to 4activeSystems' headquarters, an testing equipment manufacturer for ADAS and autonomous driving.
(( Hwaseong Songsan proving round by www.katri.or.kr , www.ts.go.kr 교통안전공단 자동차안전연구원 주행시험장 ))
Automotive Testing Papenburg [de], Germany
Bruntingthorpe Airfield & Proving Ground, United Kingdom
Digitrans Automotive Proving Ground, St. Valentin, Austria
HORIBA MIRA, United Kingdom
Lang Lang Proving Ground, Australia
GoMentum Station, United States
Millbrook Proving Ground, United Kingdom
Nevada Automotive Testing Center, United States
Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, New Zealand
TRIWO Automotive Testing Center, near Frankfurt and Saarbrücken, Germany^[5]
UTAC, headquartered in Linas-Montlhéry France where it operates Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry operational since 1924 the first of its eight proving grounds located in 10 countries.^[6]
ZalaZone Automotive Proving Ground, Hungary

Footnotes

^ Lewis, Jeffrey (June 28, 2017). "Anheung Proving Ground". Arms Control Wonk. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017.
^ Lewis, Jeffrey (June 24, 2017). "South Korean President Moon watched a missile test. We don't pay enough attention to South Korea's missiles. 1/". Twitter. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
^ Szalay, Zs.; Nyerges, Á.; Hamar, H.; Hesz, M. (2017). "Technical Specification Methodology for an Automotive Proving Ground Dedicated to Connected and Automated Vehicles". Periodica Polytechnica Transportation Engineering. 45 (3): 168–174. doi:10.3311/PPtr.10708.
^ Szalay, Zs.; Nyerges, Á.; Hamar, H.; Hesz, M. (2017). "Technical Specification Methodology for an Automotive Proving Ground Dedicated to Connected and Automated Vehicles". Periodica Polytechnica Transportation Engineering. 45 (3): 168–174. doi:10.3311/PPtr.10708.
^ KFZ-Testcenter, Triwo. "Teststrecken-Kalender | Triwo KFZ-Testcenter". www.triwo-testcenter.de (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2018.
^ "ABOUT UTAC" (in French). Retrieved 3 January 2022.

External links

[1] Lewis, Jeffrey (June 28, 2017). "Anheung Proving Ground". Arms Control Wonk. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017.

[2] Lewis, Jeffrey (June 24, 2017). "South Korean President Moon watched a missile test. We don't pay enough attention to South Korea's missiles. 1/". Twitter. Retrieved June 28, 2017.

[3] Szalay, Zs.; Nyerges, Á.; Hamar, H.; Hesz, M. (2017). "Technical Specification Methodology for an Automotive Proving Ground Dedicated to Connected and Automated Vehicles". Periodica Polytechnica Transportation Engineering. 45 (3): 168–174. doi:10.3311/PPtr.10708.

[4] Szalay, Zs.; Nyerges, Á.; Hamar, H.; Hesz, M. (2017). "Technical Specification Methodology for an Automotive Proving Ground Dedicated to Connected and Automated Vehicles". Periodica Polytechnica Transportation Engineering. 45 (3): 168–174. doi:10.3311/PPtr.10708.

[5] KFZ-Testcenter, Triwo. "Teststrecken-Kalender | Triwo KFZ-Testcenter". www.triwo-testcenter.de (in German). Retrieved 17 January 2018.

[6] "ABOUT UTAC" (in French). Retrieved 3 January 2022.

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