YPG Tropic Regions Center

Definition/Scope: The YPG Tropic Regions Center is part of the Yuma Proving Ground testing areas. The overbearing environment in which the Yuma Proving Ground Tropic Regions Test Center operates challenges military systems and equipment to the maximum. The center features dense, triple canopied old-growth forests that block sunlight and retain moisture from frequent, heavy rainfalls, keeping the temperature warm and the humidity at nearly 100 percent around the clock, all year long. The Tropic Regions Test Center's mission is to plan and conduct tropic environmental development tests on a wide variety of military electronic systems, materials, weapons, and equipment of all conceivable types, sizes, configurations and uses. The unique combination of tropic microclimates available at test sites means the individual needs of each customer are flexibly met. Heat, humidity, solar radiation, insects, fungus, bacteria, rainfall, and numerous other factors combine synergistically to reduce the performance of men, machines, and materials in the tropics quickly. The artificial environments recreated in test chambers can be useful in some aspects of the testing process, but there is no substitute for the synergistic effects of Mother Nature. United States military tropic testing began in 1923, when the Panama Canal Zone was used as a test station for studies on plants and animals.

Use:

Tropic Regions Test Center

Broader Terms:

Arizona
Army Test and Evaluation Command
Developmental Test Command
US Army Test and Evaluation Command
Yuma Proving Ground

Narrower Terms:

criterion
equipment testing
field test
research and development, test and evaluation
test and evaluation

Related Terms:

YPG Cold Regions Test Center
YPG Yuma Test Center