Combat Aircraft visits today’s TOPGUN at the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center and finds out how the unit operates in 2018.
Driving east from Reno, a quiet, remote, desert enclave in northern Nevada isn’t quite where you’d expect the US Navy to perfect its warfighting skills. However, this is actually the perfect overland environment for pilots and weapons systems officers (WSOs) to be honing their skills. TOPGUN isn’t just a film from the 1980s, and it isn’t a competition — it’s an intrinsic part of high-end navy strike fighter aircraft training. Every day, streams of colorful adversaries go head to head with fleet pilots as they learn how to be the best they can possibly be. However, while TOPGUN was made famous by the 1986 movie, the reality is far removed from Hollywood’s portrayal of this center of excellence.
The Navy Fighter Weapons School (NFWS) is now a department within the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC) at NAS Fallon, Nevada. TOPGUN holds three classes per year for what is now a 13-week course. Graduates of TOPGUN are known as strike fighter tactics instructors (SFTIs), who either return to the fleet as squadron training officers with a coveted TOPGUN blu…
