Exquadrum moving into former Air Force bunkers, Southern California.

VICTORVILLE • An Adelanto company is looking to move into abandoned munitions bunkers at Southern California Logistics Airport, where it can test decoy flares and other prototypes for clients that include the Department of Defense and NASA.

“One of the new projects that will be kicked off on in this new location will be to conduct research and development on a new class of decoy flares,” said Kevin Mahaffy, president of Exquadrum, Inc. “When enemies fire anti-aircraft missiles at our military aircraft, these flares are deployed to confuse the missile and save the aircraft and the lives of those onboard.”

To make ventures like that one feasible, Mahaffy is moving headquarters for his research and development company from a 10,000-square-foot building on Rancho Road to a series of bunkers at former George Air Force Base.

The bunkers were rated for bomb blast and were previously used by the Air Force to store potentially explosive material, a staff report included in Tuesday night’s Victorville City Council agenda states, making the buildings a fitting environment for Exquadrum’s test facility.

Exquadrum has done work in the past for the US Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency, with projects that include hypersonic wind tunnel technology, satellite thrusters and biological weapons neutralization, with rocket motor systems tested at the El Mirage and Lucerne Valley dry lake beds.

“Another new project that we will be kicking off at that location early next year is for NASA,” Mahaffy said. “We will be conducting research and development of a new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology. This UAV will be launched from another aircraft. It will then inflate and go on to fly its mission of conducting earth observation, science missions.