Naval Air Station Lemoore or NAS Lemoore is a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

base, located in

Kings County Kings County or King's County may refer to: Places Canada *Kings County, New Brunswick *Kings County, Nova Scotia *Kings County, Prince Edward Island ** King's County (electoral district), abolished in 1892 Ireland * County Offaly, formerly calle ...

and Fresno County,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. Lemoore Station, a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a 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 counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

, is located inside the base's borders. NAS Lemoore is the Navy's newest and largest

master jet base In the United States Navy, a master jet base is a naval air station with permanent basing and homeporting of carrier-based tactical jet squadrons (e.g., fighter, strike fighter, attack), carrier air wings, and the provision of one or more jet-cap ...

. Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, along with its associated squadrons, is home ported there. NAS Lemoore also hosts five carrier air wings:

Carrier Air Wing Two Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2) is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Lemoore. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier . Subordinate units CVW-2 consists of 9 Squadrons History 1940s-50s Origi ...

(CVW-2),

Carrier Air Wing 5 Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5) is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier . It was initially formed in 1943. It has participated in the Second Wor ...

(CVW-5),

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 C ...

(CVW-9),

Carrier Air Wing Eleven Carrier Air Wing Eleven (CVW-11) is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier .Carrier Air Wing Seventeen Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17), is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier . Mission To conduct carrier air warfare operations and ass ...

(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

of the U.S. Navy. 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 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 twin-engine, carrier-capable, multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F tandem-seat variants are larger and more ad ...

. 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 NAS Lemoore from 2001 to 2004. Additional military staffing was required at the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department, Strike Fighter Weapons School Pacific, 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-size SUVs produced by the American manufacturer Jeep. At its introduction, while most SUVs were still manufactured with body-on-frame construction, the Grand Cherokee has used a unibody chassis from the ...

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 a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enforcem ...

(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 Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, typically used on military and civilian aircraft, use a thermographic camera that senses infrared radiation. The sensors installed in forward-looking infrared cameras, as well as those of other thermal ...

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, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through c ...

, 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 aircraft, supersonic, twinjet, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, 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 and sixteen Fleet perationalSquadrons. In 2017, the F-35C Lightning II was received onboard NAS Lemoore, establishing the first F-35 Pacific training squadron. Lemoore is home to aircraft assigned to the following Carrier Air Wings. * Carrier Air Wing 2 (CVW-2), assigned to *

(CVW-5), forward deployed to

MCAS Iwakuni is a United States Marine Corps air station located in the Nishiki river delta, southeast of Iwakuni Station in the city of Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. History The Japanese government bought a large portion of what is today MCAS I ...

, Japan; assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 9 (CVW-9), assigned to * Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11), assigned to *

Carrier Air Wing 17 Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17), is a United States Navy aircraft carrier air wing based at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. The air wing is attached to the aircraft carrier . Mission To conduct carrier air warfare operations and as ...

(CVW-17), assigned to

Based flying units

Flying units based at NAS Lemoore.

United States Navy

Commander, Naval Air Forces, Pacific * Air Operations Department –

MH-60S Seahawk The Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk (or Sea Hawk) is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family. The most significant modificatio ...

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) * Fleet Readiness Center West *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) * Military College

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* ** {{Authority control Installations of the United States Navy in California NAS Lemoore NAS Lemoore Lemoore, Naval Air Station Military airbases established in 1961 Lemoore, California 1961 establishments in California NAS Lemoore NAS Lemoore