---
tags:
  - Organization
  - Research
  - Nuclear
  - USA
category: "U.S. Government"
summary: "Sandia National Laboratories is a U.S. national laboratory that conducts research and development in nuclear weapons and other areas."
relations:
  - type: contractor_to
    with: "[[Lockheed Martin]]"
    reverse: true
    start: 1993
    end: 2017
    role: "management of the laboratory through Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin company"
    fn: 2
updated: 2026-10-15
start: 1945
location: "Albuquerque, New Mexico"
---
Sandia National Laboratories is a U.S. national laboratory that conducts research and development in nuclear weapons and other areas. By the late 1960s, much of the [[United States]]' primary analysis of nuclear intelligence had shifted to laboratories like Sandia and [[Los Alamos]], where intelligence units dealing with the [[Soviet Union]] and [[China]] had been set up after World War II. These units began monitoring the transfer of nuclear technology and countries viewed as "nth" nations, or near-nuclear countries.[^1]

### Management

From 1993 to 2017 the laboratory was run through Sandia Corporation, which the laboratory's own history describes as "a Lockheed Martin company from 1993-2017." Before that the corporation was a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Electric.[^2] The company's Energy and Environment sector managed the laboratory as part of its [[Department of Energy]] portfolio, and in its 1996 filing the company described the laboratory as a federally funded research and development center with responsibilities for national security programs in defense, energy and the environment.[^3] [[Albert Narath]] was president of Sandia Corporation from April 1989 to August 14, 1995, and then became president and chief operating officer of the company's Energy and Environment sector.[^3] In 2017 management passed to National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of [[Honeywell]] International.[^2]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 11.
[^2]: Sandia National Laboratories, "Sandia's Government Owned/Contractor Operated heritage," https://www.sandia.gov/about/history/goco.html
[^3]: Lockheed Martin Corporation, Form 10-K405 for the fiscal year 1995, filed March 13, 1996, Item 1, Energy and Environment Sector, and Part I, Item 4A, Executive Officers of the Registrant, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/936468/0000950109-96-001535.txt