Naval Surface Warfare Center Corona Division is the only independent assessment agent of the US Navy for the objective analysis of warfighting capability of ships and aircraft, warfare training, and new defense systems. It is one of the divisions under command of NAVSEA.

There are three national laboratories and assessment centers belonging to this center. The Joint Warfare Assessment Lab and the Daugherty Memorial Assessment Center are charged with warfare assessment while the Measurement Science and Technology Assessment Center deals with research of metrology and calibration standards and procedures for the Navy and Marine Corps.

At the start of World War II, a 700-acre luxury resort was sold to the Navy and converted into a hospital. By 1944 there were nearly 300 doctors and nurses and 1200 corpsmen caring for 12,000 patients. However, the hospital was soon taken over as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) Missile Development Division moved west and needed the space, creating NBS Corona Laboratories. When the Navy's Terrier guided missile was ready for full-scale testing in 1952, NBS Corona was entrusted with the task of objective and accurate analysis.

In 1953, the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of Commerce announced that weapons research and development should be headed under the military rather than the NBS and the laboratories were transferred to the Navy. It was renamed the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Corona (NOLC) and was officially under the Bureau of Ordnance which it had already been serving for 12 years.