Sandia Base

Sandia Base was, from 1946 to 1971, the principal nuclear weapons installation of the United States Department of Defense. It was located on the southeastern edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. For twenty-five years, the top-secret Sandia Base and its subsidiary installation, Manzano Base, carried on the atomic weapons research, development, design, testing, and training commenced by the Manhattan Project during World War II. Fabrication, assembly, and storage of nuclear weapons was also done at Sandia Base. The base played a key role in the United States nuclear deterrence capability during the Cold War. In 1971 it was merged into Kirtland Air Force Base.

Sandia Base was located at about 35° 02' 25" N, 106° 32' 59" W at an elevation 5,394 feet (1,644 m) above sea level. It was in the southeast quadrant of Albuquerque, bounded roughly by Louisiana Boulevard SE and Kirtland Air Force Base on the west, and Eubank Avenue SE and the Sandia Mountains on the east, and Isleta Pueblo lands on the south. There were security gates on Gibson Avenue SE and Wyoming Boulevard SE.

The base was created on the site formerly occupied by Oxnard Field, once the major Albuquerque airport. A competing airport took most of the local traffic in the 1930s. The U.S. Army bought the field after 1939.

Leslie Groves and Robert Oppenheimer faced the challenges of turning a war-driven, short-term bomb design effort into a stable peacetime operation in charge of producing and maintaining a nuclear stockpile for the nation. A serious short-term problem was retaining personnel, particularly at Los Alamos where many scientists and technicians were eager to return to civilian pursuits. The solutions to the challenges led directly to the transformation of Albuquerque's old Oxnard Field into the nation's principal nuclear weapons installation.

Atomic Bomb engineering was carried out by the Z Division, named for its director, Dr. Jerrold R. Zacharias from Los Alamos. Z Division was conceived as an ordnance design, testing, and assembly arm. However, space was at a premium at Los Alamos. Additionally, members of Z Division needed to work closely with the military. Groves also decided as part of an effort to retain personnel to focus the laboratory more on weapons development by relocating various weapons production and assembly activities away from Los Alamos. Thus, the decision was taken to move Z Division to the old Oxnard Field. Already at the close of the war, the engineering group of Z Division had begun consolidating weapons assembly functions there. Z Division was initially located at Wendover Field but moved to Oxnard Field, New Mexico, in September 1945 to be closer to Los Alamos. By 1946, the site was being referred to as "Sandia Base" after the nearby Sandia Mountains.

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