Navy Electronics Laboratory The U . S . Navy Electronics Laboratory ( NEL ) was created in 1945 , with consolidation of the naval radio station , radar operators training school , and radio security activity of the Navy Radio and Sound Lab and its wartime partner , the University of California Division of War Research . NEL ’ s charter was “ " to effectuate the solution of any problem in the field of electronics , in connection with the design , procurement , testing , installation and maintenance of electronic equipment for the U . S . Navy . " ” Its radio communications and sonar work was augmented with basic research in the propagation of electromagnetic energy in the atmosphere and of sound in the ocean . History . 80 % of the Point Loma Military Reservation evolved into the Naval Electronics Laboratory Center ( NELC ) at the end of World War II . In turn NELC was merged into the Naval Ocean Systems Center ( NOSC ) in 1977 . This eventually was merged into the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command ( SPAWAR ) in 1997 . In the 1960s , NELC was tasked with 4C : Command , Control , Communications and Computers . Projects . Shipboard Antenna Model Range . As one of its first projects , NEL began building its " Shipboard Antenna Model Range " . The non - metallic arch of this structure supports a transmitting antenna which is positioned toward a brass model ship on a turntable . The ground plane under the arch simulates the electrical characteristics of the ocean . Allowing research on the properties of shipboard antennas to be carried out . Arctic submarine exploration . It also began conversion of a World War II mortar emplacement , " Battery Whistler " , into an Arctic Submarine Laboratory . Scientific exploration of the $ 3 , and particularly providing the capability to operate attack submarines in the Arctic under the ice canopy , would become a key NEL mission . World headlines came early in this program from several events — the submerged voyage of USS " Nautilus " from the $ 3 to the $ 3 , via the North Pole , in 1958 , and the surfacing at the pole of USS " Skate " the following year , both with NEL ’ s Dr . Waldo Lyon aboard as chief scientist and ice pilot . Bathyscaphe Trieste . NEL also plunged into the undersea environment , acquiring the " Bathyscaphe Trieste " and directing its 1960 dive over 35 , 000 feet ( 10 . 7 km ) down into the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench near Guam . Radio telescopes . Interested in radio physics in general , the lab built a - diameter radio telescope on Point Loma , and in 1964 , NEL began construction of the La Posta Astro - Geophysical Observatory on a site in the Laguna Mountains , east of San Diego . The observatory played a major role in solar radio mapping , studies of environmental disturbances , and development of a solar optical videometer for microwave research . Its dish , which could both transmit and receive , was used for important Center research programs in propagation and ionospheric forecasting which was used during a number of Apollo space launches to predict solar activity that might hamper communications from the ground to the space capsules . Communications . In the area of communications , NEL developed Verdin , a low - frequency / very - low - frequency ( LF / VLF ) system to provide information to deeply submerged Polaris missile submarines , and began development of satellite communication capabilities . Requirements for handling the vast amount of shipboard communications during the intensifying Vietnam War led to tasking for an internal message handling system . In response , the lab developed the Message Processing and Distribution System ( MPDS ) , installing it aboard the Seventh Fleet flagship USS " Oklahoma City " a month ahead of schedule . The lab improved substantially on that system later and installed it aboard " Nimitz " - class aircraft carriers . Computer science . The programming language dialect NELIAC was developed by and named after the lab . NELIAC was the brainchild of Harry Huskey , at the time Chairman of the ACM , who had a keen interest in porting applications in a machine - independent form . ALGOL 58 gave NEL the framework for an implementation , and work commenced in 1958 , but was not fully developed until 1961 . NELIAC was used at NEL to support experimental anti - submarine systems and Command and Control Systems development , and later , at the Navy Command Systems and Support Activity ( NAVCOSSACT ) in Washington DC in support of the National Emergency Command Post Afloat ( NECPA ) project which was installed on many large ships starting in 1966 . This was the world ' s first self - compiling compiler and was ported to many other computers in the Department of Defense , it also included the NELOS operating system development used for large scale applications ( unique to the USQ - 20 Navy shipboard computer and its commercial version , the UNIVAC 490 ) . Many other versions existed for a variety of computers because the ease of portability and the rapid one - pass compile times . Naval Command , Control and Communications Laboratory Center and beyond . In 1967 , as part of the general Navy laboratory re - organization , NEL became the Naval Command , Control and Communications Laboratory Center . The name was never fully accepted , and in about six months it was changed to Naval Electronics Laboratory Center ( NELC ) . In 1997 , with the disestablishment of NCCOSC and the establishment of direct oversight by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command , the Center assumed its current name , Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego ( SSC San Diego ) .