Naval Air Station Lemoore

Naval Air Station Lemoore
Reeves Field
Summary
Airport type Naval Air Station
Operator United States Navy
Location Kings / Fresno counties, near Lemoore, California
Built 1961
In use Active
Commander Captain David James
Elevation AMSL 232 ft / 71 m
Coordinates 36°19′59″N 119°57′07″W / 36.33306°N 119.95194°W / 36.33306; -119.95194Coordinates: 36°19′59″N 119°57′07″W / 36.33306°N 119.95194°W / 36.33306; -119.95194
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
14L/32R 13,500 4,115 Concrete
14R/32L 13,497 4,114 Concrete

Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore (IATA: NLC, ICAO: KNLC, FAA LID: NLC) is a United States Navy base, located in Kings County and Fresno County, California. Lemoore Station, California, a census-designated place, is located inside the base's borders.[1]

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 Wings: Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2), Carrier Air Wing Nine (CVW-9), Carrier Air Wing Eleven (CVW-11), and Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17).[2]

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. NAS Lemoore is the newest and largest Master Jet Base in the U.S. Navy. It has two offset parallel runways 4,600 feet (1,400 m) apart. Aircraft parking and maintenance hangars are aligned between the 13,500-foot (4,100 m) runways. Separated from the hangars by underpasses beneath taxiways A & C, the remainder of the air operations area is located directly 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. This action 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 Naval Air Station Lemoore over the period 2001-2004. Additional military staffing was required at Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department, Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific, and the 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, who was the first Naval officer in Lemoore.[3][4]

Current operations

Aerial view of NAS Lemoore in the early 1960s

With the transfer of NAS Miramar to the United States Marine Corps, 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 Hornet Strike Fighter. In November, 1999, NAS Lemoore received its first F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets, which replaced the F-14 Tomcat in fleet service as an air-superiority fighter and has assumed, in a different configuration, the role of older F/A-18 Strike Fighters. Currently, there are a total of 175 Hornets and Super Hornets home-based at NAS Lemoore operating from one Fleet Replacement [training] Squadron and fifteen Fleet [operational] Squadrons.

Tenant units

Functional Air Wings

Carrier Air Wings

Air Wing Equivalent Commands

Squadrons

F/A-18E/F Super Hornets

Tenant activities

FAA Airport Diagram

Educational institutes

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cnic.navy.mil/regions/cnrsw/installations/nas_lemoore.html
  2. ↑ http://www.csfwp.navy.mil/Home.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.csfwp.navy.mil/history.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.militarybases.us/navy/nas-lemoore/
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