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The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School was a specialised fighter training institution of the US Navy from 1969 until 1996, when it was merged into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center. The school was sometimes popularly referred to as "TOPGUN" but this term more properly refers to the advanced tactical instructor course (which was taught at the School).
History The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School was established on March 3 1969 at NAS Miramar, California after a United States Navy report recommended that a graduate-level school be established to train Fleet fighter pilots in air combat tactics to counter the relatively poor air combat performance of Navy aircrews over Vietnam. The school initially operated the A-4 Skyhawk and F-5 Freedom Fighter to instruct F-4 Phantom II aircrews in dissimilar training, including the first U.S. aces of the Vietnam War, Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Willie Driscoll. The 1970s and 1980s brought the introduction of the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet as the primary Fleet fighter aircraft flown by students, while TOPGUN instructors retained their A-4s and F-5s, but also added the F-16 Fighting Falcon to better simulate the threat presented by the Soviet Union's new 4th generation MiG-29 'Fulcrum' and Su-27 'Flanker' fighters. During the 1990s, the TOPGUN syllabus was modified to include more emphasis on the air-to-ground strike mission as a result of the expanding multi-mission taskings of the F-14 and F/A-18. In addition, TOPGUN retired their A-4s and F-5s in favor of F-14s and F/A-18s. In 1996, the transfer of NAS Miramar to the Marine Corps was coupled with the incorporation of Top Gun into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon, Nevada. TOPGUN instructors currently fly the F/A-18 Hornet and the F-16 Falcon. TOPGUN course TOPGUN is the code name and common name of the U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor course (SFTI), which was previously carried out at the USN Fighter Weapons School. TOPGUN was made famous in popular culture by the 1986 release of the motion picture Top Gun. Similar Schools The Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center is the current USN school of this type. The United States Air Force has a similar school, called the United States Air Force Fighter Weapons School (see: RED FLAG exercise) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. The Royal Air Force also has a similar course specific to each aircraft type, known as the QWI (Que-Why) Course (Qualified Weapons Instructor). | ||||||||
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