Defense Contractor Moves Weapons Tests
A defense contractor that used explosives to test weapons on a once-remote facility in Santa Clarita will no longer do so because of complaints from neighbors about noise, a company spokesman said Monday.
The company, National Technical Systems, has laid off 20 employees and moved its AT-4 anti-tank weapon testing program from a 165-acre site south of Soledad Canyon Road.
The action followed complaints from residents of the Friendly Valley area. The community for senior citizens is about 1 1/2 miles away, said Robert I. Snyder, the firm’s attorney. In the testing program, explosives are detonated in the weapons to gauge the strength of metal tubes. It has been temporarily moved to Kern County and eventually will be run in Arkansas, Snyder said.
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