Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore is a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

base, located in Kings County and

Fresno County Fresno County (), officially the County of Fresno, is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,008,654. The county seat is Fresno, the fifth-most populo ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. Lemoore Station, a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

, is located inside the base's borders. NAS Lemoore is the Navy's newest and largest master jet base. Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, along with its associated squadrons, is home ported there. NAS Lemoore also hosts four

carrier air wing A carrier air wing (abbreviated CVW) is an operational naval aviation organization composed of several aircraft squadron (aviation), squadrons and detachments of various types of fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing and rotorcraft, rotary-wing a ...

s: Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2),

Carrier Air Wing Nine Carrier Air Wing Nine (CVW-9) is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Lemoore. The Air Wing is currently assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). The Tail Code of aircraft assigned to ...

(CVW-9), Carrier Air Wing Eleven (CVW-11), and Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17).

History

Commissioned in 1961, NAS Lemoore, as seen from an aircraft flying above, looks significant and stands out from the farmlands of Central California, due to its large construction. It is the newest and largest master jet base of the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

. It has two offset parallel runways apart. Aircraft parking and maintenance hangars are aligned between the runways. Separated from the hangars by underpasses beneath taxiways A and C, the remainder of the air operations area is located directly to the southeast. In July 1998, NAS Lemoore was selected as the West Coast site for the Navy's newest strike-fighter aircraft, the

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The Boeing F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet are a series of American supersonic twinjet, twin-engine, Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-capable, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft derived from the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Ho ...

. This decision brought approximately 92 additional aircraft, 1,850 additional active duty personnel and 3,000 family members to NAS Lemoore, and several associated facility additions or improvements. The Navy also brought four new fleet squadrons to NAS Lemoore from 2001 to 2004. Additional military staffing was required at the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department,

Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific {{Use mdy dates, date=June 2023 Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific (SFWSPAC) is the Pacific Fleet Strike Fighter School which duty is to safely teach graduate level tactics, techniques and procedures to Pacific Fleet Strike Fighter squadrons, i ...

, and Center for Naval Aviation Technical Training Unit Lemoore (CNATTU Lemoore) to support this effort. Originally, the officer in charge of construction for building the base was Commander Dennis K. Culp CEC/USN, the first Naval officer in Lemoore. On 31 March 2016, two civilians were killed when the

Jeep Grand Cherokee The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a range of mid-sized sport utility vehicles produced by American manufacturer Jeep. At its introduction, while most SUVs were still manufactured with body-on-frame construction, the Grand Cherokee has used a unibody ...

they were driving in collided with a parked F/A-18 jet. They were being pursued by the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is the principal state police agency for the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary jurisdiction, including patrol and Criminal investigation, investigations, over all California Controlled-access highw ...

(CHP) and managed to enter the base without hindrance by base security. A CHP helicopter was monitoring the chase from above and captured the event in a FLIR video; the base tower staff can be heard asking if the vehicle was already in the base. A CHP dispatcher can be heard confirming so and that CHP were unable to contact base security for assistance.

Current operations

With the transfer of NAS Miramar to the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...

, NAS Lemoore now hosts the Navy's entire west coast fighter/attack capability. NAS Lemoore was built "from the ground up" as a Master Jet Base, and has several operational advantages, and relatively few constraints, as a result. Strike Fighter Wing Pacific with its supporting facilities is home ported here. The primary aircraft based at NAS Lemoore is the F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter. In November, 1999, NAS Lemoore received its first F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, which replaced the

F-14 Tomcat The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American carrier-capable supersonic, twin-engine, tandem two-seat, twin-tail, all-weather-capable variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experi ...

in fleet service as an air-superiority fighter and has assumed, in a different configuration, the role of older F/A-18 Hornet fighters. Currently, there are a total of 175 Hornets and Super Hornets home-based at NAS Lemoore operating from one

Fleet Replacement Squadron A Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS), is a unit of the United States Navy or United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps that trains United States Naval Aviator, Naval Aviators, Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) and enlisted Naval aircrewman, Naval Aircre ...

and sixteen Fleet perationalSquadrons. In 2017, the

F-35C Lightning II The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for both air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic ...

was received onboard NAS Lemoore, establishing the first F-35 Pacific training squadron. NAS Lemoore Aircraft Display

Lemoore is home to aircraft assigned to the following Carrier Air Wings. * Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW-2), assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 9 (CVW-9), assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11), assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17), assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 1 (CVW-1), assigned to USS ''Harry S. Truman'' (CVN-75)

Based flying units

Flying units based at NAS Lemoore.

United States Navy

Commander, Naval Air Forces, Pacific

Tenant squadrons

Other tenant activities

* Fleet Logistics Center San Diego, Det Lemoore * Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Pacific Fleet * Naval Air Technical Services Facility Detachment * Naval Aviation Engineering Service Unit * Naval Air Maintenance Training Group * Naval Hospital * Naval Branch Dental Clinic * Naval Training Systems Center * Trainer Systems Support Activity * Navy Operational Support Center (formerly Naval Air Reserve Center) * Naval Criminal Investigative Service NCISRA * Naval Legal Service Office, Southwest Branch Office * Aviation Survival Training Center * NATEC, Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Service Command * NAFC, Naval Aviation Forecast Component * NAMCE, Naval Aviation Maintenance Center for Excellence * MWSS 473 Detachment Alpha, Marine Corps Reserve Motor transportation company

Educational institutes

* Akers Elementary School (Preschool–8th) * Neutra Elementary School (K–5) * Columbia College * West Hills College

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* ** {{Authority control 1961 establishments in California

NAS Lemoore Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore is a United States Navy base, located in Kings County, California, Kings County and Fresno County, California, Fresno County, California, United States. Lemoore Station, California, Lemoore Station, a cen ...

Installations of the United States Navy in California Lemoore, California Military airbases established in 1961 Lemoore, Naval Air Station