Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport Division is one of two centers used by the Navy for housing a research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and offensive and defensive weapons systems for undersea warfare.

The US Naval Torpedo Station was founded on Goat Island in 1869 and tested underwater weaponry through both World Wars here and on Rose Island, Fox Island, and Gould Island; the latter two are still under control of the Newport Division today. From 1951-1966, the Goat Island station was known as the Underwater Ordnance Station, then as the Underwater Weapons Research and Engineering Station until 1970. This merged with the Underwater Sound Lab from New London, CT, and was finally reorganized in 1992 into the NUWC Newport Division.