Naval EOD Technology Division

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD)—also known as Naval Support Facility Indian Head—is a United States Navy installation in Charles County, Maryland. Part of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), it is one of ten divisions of the Naval Surface Warfare Center (WFC). Its mission is to research, develop, test, evaluate, and produce energetics (i.e., explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics, reactive materials, related chemicals and fuels and their application in propulsion systems and ordnance). The U.S. Navy's presence in Indian Head dates to 1890, when the Bureau of Ordnance dispatched Robert B. Dashiell to establish a naval ordnance center. Dashiell served as Inspector in Charge of Ordnance there from 1890 to 1893. During World War I, the facility served as Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head. It is the United States Department of Defense (DoD)'s largest full-spectrum energetics facility. It employs more than 1,900 people, including more than 850 are scientists, engineers, and technicians that develop and sustain explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics, high-energy chemicals, and their application to weapons. In addition, NSWC Indian Head has the WFC's largest concentration of Ph.Ds working in energetics, including the highest number of synthetic chemists, detonation physicists, and formulation scientists.The Division pursues basic research, applied technology, technology demonstration, prototyping, engineering development, acquisition, low-rate production, in-service engineering/mishaps and failure investigations, surveillance, and demilitarization.As the U.S. Navy’s lead technical authority in the United States, NSWC Indian Head performs more than 60% of all Navy energetics workload, and has an unmatched record of 13 Navy-qualified explosives used in 47 Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps weapons. Seventy-five percent of all explosives deployed in U.S. weapons were developed by NSWC Indian Head. The main site for NSWC IHD is at Naval Support Facility Indian Head, a 3,500-acre peninsula along the Potomac River in southern Maryland, at the southern terminus of the Indian Head Highway. It also has operations in McAlester, Oklahoma; Colts Neck, New Jersey; Ogden, Utah; Louisville, Kentucky, and Picatinny, New Jersey.

Indian Head is a town in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 3,894 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It has been the site of a naval base specializing in gun and rocket propellants since 1890. Production of nitrocellulose and smokeless powder began at the Indian Head Powder Factory in 1900. The name of the base has varied over the years from Indian Head Proving Ground, to Naval Powder Factory, to Naval Propellant Plant, to Naval Ordnance Station, to the present Naval Support Facility Indian Head. The facility's main tenant activity is the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC/IH). Advanced research in energetic systems takes place at NSWC/IH. NSWC/IH absorbed the function of the closed Naval Ordnance Laboratory, formerly in White Oak. The base currently employs 3,700 people.

A Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) is part of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) operated by the United States Navy. NAVSEA Warfare Centers supply the technical operations, people, technology, engineering services and products needed to equip and support the Fleet and meet the warfighter's needs. The Warfare Centers are the Navy's principal Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) assessment activity for surface ship and submarine systems and subsystems. Additionally, the Warfare Centers provide depot maintenance and In-Service Engineering support to ensure that the systems fielded today perform consistently and reliably in the future.

NOVA Wild is a 30-acre (12 ha) zoo in Reston, Virginia, United States. The zoo features a self-drive-through Safari with zebras, bison, and llamas, and a walking tour with cheetahs, capybaras, kangaroos, sloths, camel rides, and a bird aviary. The zoo has over 50 species of animals.

Marbury is an unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland, United States. It has been designated the zip code of 20658. Marbury is located 6.3 miles from Indian Head on Maryland Route 224. Marbury was the point at which the tornado of April 28, 2002 touched down, before traveling east to demolish much of La Plata. Marbury is located at 38°34′31″N 77°09′21″W (38.575278, -77.155833)

Mattawoman Creek is a 30.0-mile-long (48.3 km) coastal-plain tributary to the tidal Potomac River with a mouth at Indian Head, Maryland, 20 miles (32 km) downstream of Washington, D.C. It comprises a 23-mile (37 km) river flowing through Prince George's and Charles counties and a 7-mile (11 km) tidal-freshwater estuary in Charles County. About three-fourths of its 94-square-mile (240 km2) watershed lies in Charles County, with the remainder in Prince George's County immediately to the north.

Potomac Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The population was 1,117 at the 2010 census. It has a volunteer fire department and numerous older rambler homes built for workers at the nearby U.S. Navy munitions plant in Indian Head (now known as the Indian Head Naval Surface Warfare Center).

Smallwood State Park is a public recreation and historic preservation area located on Mattawoman Creek near Marbury, Charles County, Maryland. The state park preserves Smallwood's Retreat, the plantation home of former Continental Army officer and Governor of Maryland, Major General William Smallwood. The park's 984 acres (398 ha) include a marina, boat ramps, picnicking facilities, campsites, cabins, trails, and nature center.

Mattawoman was an 18th-century plantation on Mattawoman Creek in Charles County, Maryland, United States.

Henry E. Lackey High School is a high school in Charles County, Maryland, United States. It is run by Charles County Public Schools.

Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge of the United States located in Virginia. It is part of the Potomac River National Wildlife Refuge Complex. It is on Mason Neck, a peninsula in the Potomac River that forms part of the shoreline of Belmont Bay. The refuge is adjacent to Mason Neck State Park. Established in 1969 and managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, it was the first federal refuge created specifically for the protection of the bald eagle. It is 2,277 acres (9.21 km2) in size, with 4.4 miles (7.1 km) of shoreline. It is covered with oak and hickory forest and it includes the largest freshwater marsh in northern Virginia. Since its founding, the refuge has been renamed for Elizabeth S. Hartwell, a local activist who fought to keep Mason Neck free of development.

Rison is an unincorporated community in Charles County, Maryland, United States. The Rison post office was established in 1905, but the area's residents are now part of the 20640 zip code area for nearby Indian Head. The community's elevation is 50 feet and it had a population of 50 in 1941. Revolutionary War General William Smallwood's home is preserved at Smallwood State Park in Rison along the Mattawoman Creek. Sweden Point Marina, site of major fishing tournaments, is located within the park, and used to be known as Sweetman's Landing. The site of historic Grinder's Wharf, in the mid-19th century an active steamship port for the Washington Steamship Lines, is off Upham Road in Rison. The residential subdivision Rison Acres was platted in 1973, the same year as the nearby Smallwood Estates subdivision. From 1955 to 2000, Robert Linkins, born in Rison, operated a one-man sawmill in Rison; the dirt road to his sawmill is now officially Linkins Road on Maryland State Route 224. Linkins died in 2008.