VENTURA : Experts Gather for Seminar on Missile System

Scores of missile weapons specialists from the U.S. and its allies around the world gathered at a Ventura hotel on Tuesday, the second day of a high-tech refresher course on the Sea Sparrow surface missile system.

Sponsored by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the annual technical seminar was hosted by the Sea Range Directorate, which tests missiles for the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division, at Point Mugu.

The Sea Sparrow, a ship-to-air missile that locks on to an aircraft’s radar signal, is widely deployed as a defensive missile aboard NATO ships, said Alan Alpers a civilian public affairs officer at the center.

“It is a very good missile in an anti-air environment,” Alpers said. Civilian and military technicians need continual training in the system, he explained.

“The environment in which you use the Sea Sparrow is constantly changing,” said Alpers, referring to the various radio signatures of enemy radar systems. “We need to exchange lots of information about who has what system out there that you may want to neutralize.”

At the seaside Holiday Inn on Tuesday afternoon, uniformed Navy officers wandered the halls between lectures, mixing with the civilian engineers in attendance. Only the presence of the NATO name on the hotel’s event directory hinted at the nature of the international conference.

But those attending the seminar said it’s just routine.

“It’s always the same old same old,” said an engineer from the Naval Civilian Engineering Laboratory in Port Hueneme. “It’s actually boring if you want to know the truth.”

A civilian engineer from the Mare Island naval facility in San Francisco said the seminar was a chance to catch up on how the Sea Sparrow program is progressing around the world.

“But the most interesting thing I learned during my visit here was when I saw the squirrels up the beach eating kelp,” the engineer said. “I didn’t know they did that.”