Special Technologies Laboratory (STL)

Special Technologies Laboratory (STL)

The Special Technologies Laboratory (STL) is a diverse, multi-mission laboratory delivering timely, innovative, high-impact national security solutions. Located in Santa Barbara, California, STL is a key satellite location that provides the Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS), National Nuclear Security Administration, and other agencies with capabilities that address national security requirements.

The core mission of STL centers around vital portfolios and foundational capabilities. STL has four mission portfolios underpinned by the NNSS Site-Directed Research and Development program:

• Dynamic Experiments bolsters nuclear security through advanced research and development, pioneering diagnostics for nuclear endeavors and stockpile management, guaranteeing the enduring reliability of weapon systems. Supports recent and future dynamic plutonium experiments in support of stockpile stewardship.
• Nonproliferation Research and Development detects, locates and characterizes foreign nuclear weapon programs, supporting arms control treaty verification, national nuclear security, nuclear counterterrorism and incident response. Supports critical, enduring national security goals to advance the science and capabilities of nuclear explosion monitoring, nuclear material production detection, nuclear weaponization detection and nuclear forensics.
• Cyber Physical Defense protects and improves critical systems by pairing sensing with machine learning. Advances cyber physical defense from consequence-driven assessments to artificial intelligence/machine learning anomaly detection.
• Strategic Systems and Intelligence provides development, engineering and fabrication from concept to the field. Supports system integration development, rapid development cycles and field support and sustainment.