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A proving ground 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

Portugal

• Field Firing Range of Alcochete, Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, an artillery and bombing range facility opened in 1904, under Portuguese Air Force control since 1993, but also used by other military branches and law enforcement agencies for training purposes. With a surface area of 7,539 hectares, it is located roughly 30 km east of Lisbon. This proving ground is planned to close and relocate (possibly to Mértola, Alentejo) owing to the construction of Luís de Camões Airport (planned to open in 2034).

Russia / Former Soviet Union

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

• Kapustin Yar, aerial weapons and rocket test range used by the North Caucasus Military District
• Totskoye Range, test range in Orenburg Oblast, Russia, best known for the Totskoye nuclear exercise, 1954
• Yakutia Challenge, winter test proving ground in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia

South Korea

• Anheung Proving Ground, Taean County
• Changwon Proving Ground, Changwon City
• Darakdae Proving Ground, Pocheon City

Sweden

• Bofors Test Center

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 20 October 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 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.

Automaker-owned

• Chrysler Proving Grounds
• Ford Proving Grounds
• General Motors Proving Grounds
• Hyundai Ulsan proving ground
• Hyundai Hwaseong proving ground
• Hällered Proving Ground (Volvo Cars)
• Mazda Proving Grounds
• Nissan Proving Grounds
• Nardò Ring (Porsche)
• Ehra-Lessien test track (Volkswagen)

Independent

Source:

• Applus+ IDIADA proving ground, Spain
• Arctic Falls Proving Grounds, several facilities and locations both outdoors and indoors in and around Älvsbyn, Sweden
• 4activeSystems Test Track, Traboch, Austria. An all-in-one test track next to 4activeSystems' headquarters, an testing equipment manufacturer for ADAS and autonomous driving.
• AstaZero, claimed to have world's longest indoor track for testing "active" safety systems and autonomous technologies, Sandhult, Sweden
• Baudette Proving Ground by Bosch, USA
• Boxberg Proving Ground by Bosch, Germany
• Bridgestone proving grounds, various locations
• Colmis Proving Ground on land and frozen lake, Arjeplog, Sweden
• Hwaseong Songsan proving ground, South Korea
• Automotive Testing Papenburg, Germany
• Bruntingthorpe Airfield & Proving Ground, United Kingdom
• Digitrans Automotive Proving Ground, St. Valentin, Austria
• Donghai Proving Ground by Bosch, China
• Flat Rock Proving Ground by Bosch, USA
• HORIBA MIRA, United Kingdom
• Lang Lang Proving Ground, Australia
• GoMentum Station, United States
• Icemakers, Arjeplog, Sweden
• Juvincourt Proving Ground by Bosch, France
• Maxxis Proving Ground Test Track, Kunshan, China
• Memanbetsu Proving Ground by Bosch, Japan
• Michigan Technical Resource Park, USA
• Millbrook Proving Ground, United Kingdom
• Shiobara Proving Ground by Bosch, Japan
• Sottozero Centre by Pirelli, Flurheden, Sweden
• Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds, New Zealand
• Tjintokk, Slagnäs, Sweden
• Tolhuin Proving Ground by Bosch, Argentina
• TRIWO Automotive Testing Center, near Frankfurt and Saarbrücken, Germany
• 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.
• Vaitoudden proving ground by Bosch, Sweden
• Yakeshi Proving Ground by Bosch, China
• ZalaZone Automotive Proving Ground, Hungary

References

1. Pereira, Helena; Mesquita, Joana (15 May 2024). "Campo de Tiro da Força Aérea pode ir de Alcochete para Mértola" [Air Force proving ground may be relocated from Alcochete to Mértola]. Público (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 December 2024.
2. Lewis, Jeffrey (28 June 2017). "Anheung Proving Ground". Arms Control Wonk. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017.
3. Lewis, Jeffrey (24 June 2017). "South Korean President Moon watched a missile test. We don't pay enough attention to South Korea's missiles". Twitter. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
4. "Changwon Proving Ground". Agency for Defense Development.
5. "Facilities". Agency for Defense Development.
6. "Pocheon (Darakdae Proving Ground)". Agency for Defense Development.
7. "Proving Ground". Bofors Test Center. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
8. 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.
9. Tom. "A Swedish test track. Hällered Proving Ground". Saab blog. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
10. 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.
11. "Arctic Falls". Arctic Falls. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
12. "Arctic Falls expanding with new proving ground in Sweden". European Rubber Journal. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
13. "AstaZero". Research Institutes of Sweden. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
14. "Baudette Proving Ground". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
15. "Boxberg Proving Ground". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
16. "Bridgestone Proving Ground". Bridgestone. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
17. "Welcome to Colmis Proving Ground". Colmis. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
18. "Donghai Proving Ground". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
19. "Flat Rock Proving Ground". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
20. "Icemakers". Icemakers. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
21. "Juvincourt Proving Ground". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
22. "Proving ground test track". Maxxis. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
23. ^ "The Bosch proving grounds". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
24. "PIRELLI'S WINTER PROVING GROUND BECOMES OPERATIONAL IN SUMMER AS WELL" (Press release). Pirelli. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
25. "Tjintokk". Tjintokk (in Swedish). Retrieved 15 September 2023.
26. KFZ-Testcenter, Triwo. "Teststrecken-Kalender" (in German). triwo-testcenter.de. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
27. "ABOUT UTAC" (in French). Retrieved 3 January 2022.
28. "Winter test center Vaitoudden". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.
29. "Winter test center Yakeshi". Bosch. Retrieved 15 September 2023.

• Military installations
• Proving grounds