3-D Maps for Top Guns : Point Mugu: The Navy allows a rare glimpse of computer software that plots terrain more effectively and judges altitude more precisely.

The Navy opened the doors Wednesday into one of its most secret installations at Point Mugu--a computer nerve center where electronic warfare experts can plot military battle strategies.

The latest refinements in the Navy’s strategic capability, officials said, include the development of three-dimensional maps that can be called up on computer screens to show virtually every region in the world.

Utilizing color-coded geometrics as an overlay over the new maps, Navy strategists at Point Mugu’s Pacific Missile Test Center can plot terrain more effectively and judge altitude more precisely, officials said.

Secret computer software has assisted Navy fighters since the Vietnam era but only in two dimensions. In January, officials said, the three-dimensional maps were developed and now cover areas of the world from the Middle East to Hong Kong.

“The person that’s going to win all of the conflicts now is going to be the person who can control the electronic environment,” said Terry Clark, a director of Point Mugu’s Electronic Warfare Directorate. “This is what allows the United States to win a war of attrition.”

Officials provided the rare glimpse of the Navy’s testing technology to the public during a press tour Wednesday of the main Electronic Warfare Building at Point Mugu.

The complex computer system is called the TEAMS system --Tactical EA-6B Missile Support--and was first developed in 1983. Clark said it now enables fighters to ask, “What altitude can I be at, at a certain position, and not be seen and not be shot?”

Officers and pilots can plan their mission on ground and load a cassette into the back of an EA-6B plane in less than 2 1/2 minutes, Clark said, allowing use of the new technology in actual combat situations. The plane has four seats, two for the pilots and two for strategists.

“We want to let the guy that’s going to get shot out there make the decisions,” said Dave Cronk, site manager for PRB Associates, a company based in Hollywood, Md., that contracts with the Navy to build such systems.

Clark said the new computer capabilities at Point Mugu are an improvement of TEAMS system technology that played a significant role during the U.S. attack on Libya four years ago.

“The battlefield of tomorrow is already extremely dense with radars and electromagnetic signals,” he said.

The computer panels at Point Mugu flash intricate geometric shapes in red, green and blue. During Wednesday’s demonstration, Cronk called up a map of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, then focused on Oman.

“We can narrow it down to a small coastline,” he said.

During Wednesday’s press tour, officials stressed the Navy’s concerns with local environmental issues.

The Mugu Lagoon, the only lagoon in Southern California with a year-round entrance to the ocean, is home to many endangered species, including the brown pelican. On Wednesday, harbor seals slept on the lagoon’s shores as the tour proceeded.

“The Navy presence adds for its protection,” Navy ecologist Tom Keeney said. Without the Pacific Missile Test Center, Keeney said, the Mugu Lagoon would be “condominium city all over the place.”