Ballistics Research Laboratory

The Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland was the center for the United States Army's research efforts in ballistics (interior, exterior, and terminal) as well as vulnerability/lethality analysis.

In 1992, the BRL's mission, personnel, and facilities were incorporated into the newly created Army Research Laboratory, and BRL was disestablished.

According to a pamphlet published in 1955 by the US Army's Ordnance Corps, BRL was "established by the Ordnance Department (Ordnance Corps) because they recognized that Ballistics, the study of the motion of projectiles, provides a rational foundation for the design and development of Ordnance." The name was originally plural, reflecting subordinate laboratories for each of the ballistic disciplines, but these were eventually redesignated divisions of a single laboratory.

Over the years, and particularly during World War II, BRL's permanent technical staff was augmented by a number of eminent scientists and engineers serving in various capacities. Among those was noted American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble who served as Chief of the External Ballistics Branch of the BRL during which he directed a large volume of research in exterior ballistics during the war which increased the effective fire power of bombs and projectiles. His work was facilitated by his personal development of several items of equipment for the instrumentation used in exterior ballistics, the most outstanding development being the high-speed clock camera, which made possible the study of the characteristics of bombs and low velocity projectiles in flight. The results of his studies was credited with greatly improving design, performance, and military effectiveness of bombs and rockets. Other included members of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) which was established in 1940. Among its member were:

Other consultants included astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit; chemists John Gamble Kirkwood (recipient of the Langmuir Award), George Kistiakowsky (recipient of the Medal for Merit, Medal of Freedom, National Medal of Science, and the Priestley Medal), and Franklin Long; computer scientist Herman Goldstine (recipient of the National Medal of Science); mathematicians George Carrier (recipient of the National Medal of Science) and Richard Courant; mechanical engineer Howard Wilson Emmons; and physicists Walker Bleakney (a pioneer of mass spectrometry), Joseph O. Hirschfelder (recipient of the National Medal of Science), Norman Ramsey (Nobel laureate), Robert G. Sachs (founder and director of Argonne National Laboratory), and L.H. Thomas (the first fellow in IBM's Watson Research Center).

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