How YPG keeps their equipment and our troops safe

For the past 75 years, the Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) has played a critical role in keeping our troops as safe as possible and it all starts with maintenance care of the vehicles and weapons being tested.

Equipment specialist, Chris Scott shares with News 11 what him and his team do.

“What we do is quality control so we inspect the vehicles after the maintenance work has been done on them,” Scott said.

He works as a part of the maintenance control branch at YPG.

“A lot of the stuff that comes here are the prototype so we help to facilitate the creation of new technical manuals, new procedures, work rounds, things of that nature,” he added. After testing, their vehicles and weapons go to Scott and his team to be inspected and worked on for any malfunctions before returning for more tests. “We’re constantly trying to improve the mobility, lethality and the survivability of the equipment,” he said. Scott shared why he believes it’s so important for Yumans to realize the work that’s happening in their own backyards. “It’s important because unfortunately we find ourselves in the theater of war right now which is over in the middle east and it looks like we may be there for a while and this is the main test facility for desert war fare,” he said. “At large, part of what YPG does is we test individual weapons,” he said. “We test everything for ground combat so that means if it’s a soldier carried weapon or the full on weapon system, which happens to be from the M1 tank and everything in between,” he added. YPG’s mission is make sure our troops get the safest equipment out there. Former Marine, Marco Navarro is now an electronic integrative systems mechanic for YPG. He shares why he believes the work YPG is doing is so important. “When our troops are using these, when lives are on the line, it needs to function as intended, whether it be the ammo, weapons, or the vehicles, they need to function as intended and if they’re out there with duds, you know we’re talking lives on the line, American lives,” he said.

YPG is gearing up for their 75th Anniversary event. It’ll take place on February 3rd at YPG where everyone is welcome to come and see first hand more of what YPG does and some of the equipment they are currently testing.