Article - Naval Air Station Fallon, Top Gun USA - 2017

Naval Air Station Fallon, Top Gun USA

Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon, Nevada is the United States Navy (USN) premier tactical air warfare centre for Air to Air and Air to ground training, but better known for training the "best of the best" USN pilots at Top Gun, formally known as the Naval Fighter Weapons Training School which relocated to NAS Fallon in May of 1996, after moving from NAS Miramar, California. Today Top Gun falls under the control of the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC).

Carrier Air Wings

NAS Fallon is one of the few Air Stations in the United States that can host a full Carrier Air Wing for training and any one time. Numerous Carrier Air Wings detach for air operations and pre-carrier deployment training throughout the year. The extensive training facilities include four bombing ranges and an electronic warfare range with over 10,200 square miles of airspace and the 14,000-foot runway remains the longest in the USN, making NAS Fallon an all round training facility unequalled throughout the service.

NAWDC

The mission of the NAWDC is to provide the USN and USMC with state of the art naval aviation flight training, through academic courses, tactics development, plus squadron and air wing training for future deployments. The NAWDC flies the E/A-18G Growler, F/A-18 Hornet/Super Hornet, E-2C Hawkeye and MH-60S Seahawk.

The NAWDC currently runs the following training schools:

Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI) program known as Top Gun.

Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School (Top Dome).

Rotary Wing School (SEAWOLF)

Growler Weapons School (HAVOC)

Electronic Warfare School

Fighter Squadron Composite 13 (VFC-13) "Fighting Saints"

VFC-13 provides aggressor and adversary training for Carrier Air Wings and fighter/attack squadrons from the USN, USMC and the USAF. Flying Northrop F-5N/F Tiger IIs, the ‘Fighting Saints" adorn brightly marked, non-standard camouflage schemes which have been applied to the aircraft to represent foreign Eastern Block adversaries.

Aviation Reporting would like to thank the staff and especially PAO Zip Upham for hosting as always a well positioned winter photoshoot on the NAWDC and VFC-13 ramps.

Author Mark Forest

Photography by Mark Forest, Mark Zuidmulder and Steven Fenton