NAVAL AIR STATION KINGSVILLE
South Texas strike training — the T-45 Goshawk pipeline to Navy and Marine wings of gold.
OVERVIEW
Naval Air Station Kingsville is one of the U.S. Navy's two principal strike jet training installations — alongside Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi — that produces newly winged Navy and Marine Corps strike-fighter aviators bound for fleet F/A-18 Super Hornet and F-35C Lightning II squadrons. The base occupies about 4,000 acres in south Texas, just outside the small city of Kingsville and about 40 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. Approximately 1,000 active-duty Sailors and civilian employees support the host facility, and hundreds of student naval aviators rotate through the base each year.
The installation hosts Training Air Wing TWO (TW-2), with Training Squadrons VT-21 "Redhawks" and VT-22 "Golden Eagles" flying the T-45C Goshawk in the intermediate and advanced strike syllabus phases. Student naval aviators come to Kingsville after completing primary training at NAS Pensacola, NAS Corpus Christi, or NAS Whiting Field, and depart with their wings of gold and an assignment to a Navy or Marine Corps strike-fighter Fleet Replacement Squadron. Marine Aviation Training Support Group 22 supports Marine Corps students at the base. NAS Kingsville's strategic combination of available land, low-traffic Gulf Coast and south Texas airspace, and a co-located outlying field at Orange Grove provides the operating environment required to safely conduct the high-tempo strike syllabus.
KEY FACTS
- MissionOne of two Navy strike jet training installations producing Navy and Marine Corps strike-fighter aviators
- Training AircraftT-45C Goshawk
- Sister BaseShares the strike training mission with NAS Meridian, Mississippi
- Outlying FieldOLF Orange Grove (Texas) supports Field Carrier Landing Practice
- Pilot ProductionProduces a substantial share of new Navy and Marine Corps strike-fighter aviators each year
HISTORY
Naval Air Station Kingsville was commissioned on July 4, 1942, as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Kingsville, established in response to the U.S. Navy's wartime demand for additional naval aviator training capacity along the Texas Gulf Coast. The Navy already operated a sprawling primary training enterprise at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi about 40 miles to the northeast, but the rapidly expanding wartime pilot pipeline required additional satellite fields, and the small Texas community of Kingsville offered the available land, year-round flying weather, and unrestricted airspace required for high-volume training operations.
Through the closing years of World War II, NAS Kingsville operated as a satellite of NAS Corpus Christi, supporting primary and advanced training for Navy carrier and patrol aviators. After the war the base was placed in caretaker status, but the Navy retained the airfield and reactivated it during the Korean War in 1951 as a permanent training installation under the new designation Naval Air Station Kingsville. Through the 1950s and 1960s the base supported a mix of fleet detachments and advanced training, transitioning steadily to jet operations as the Navy's training fleet evolved.
By 1968, NAS Kingsville had completed the transition to a dedicated jet training base, hosting first the TF-9 Cougar and later the TA-4J Skyhawk in the intermediate and advanced strike training syllabus. Through the 1970s and 1980s the base, paired with NAS Meridian in Mississippi, provided the principal Navy and Marine Corps strike pilot pipeline, producing successive generations of A-7 Corsair, A-6 Intruder, F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, and AV-8B Harrier pilots for the fleet.
Beginning in 1992, NAS Kingsville began transitioning from the TA-4J Skyhawk to the new T-45 Goshawk — a Navy variant of the British Aerospace Hawk — as the Navy's standard advanced jet trainer. The transition was completed by the late 1990s, and the upgraded T-45C variant with a fully digital cockpit became the standard training aircraft in the early 2000s. NAS Kingsville continues to operate the T-45C today, training Navy and Marine Corps strike-fighter aviators in support of the fleet's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35C Lightning II, and Marine F/A-18C/D and F-35B/C communities. The base is one of the principal economic anchors of south Texas's Coastal Bend region.
MAJOR COMMANDS & TENANT UNITS
- Training Air Wing TWO (TW-2)
- Training Squadron VT-21 "Redhawks" — T-45C Goshawk strike training
- Training Squadron VT-22 "Golden Eagles" — T-45C Goshawk strike training
- Marine Aviation Training Support Group 22
- Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division detachment
LOCATION & GEOGRAPHY
NOTABLE EVENTS
- 1942CommissionedCommissioned in July 1942 as Naval Auxiliary Air Station Kingsville to expand wartime naval aviator training.
- 1968Jet Training EraNAS Kingsville fully transitioned to a jet training base, hosting TF-9 Cougar and later TA-4J Skyhawk strike training squadrons.
- 1992T-45 Goshawk ArrivesTraining Air Wing TWO began transitioning from the TA-4J Skyhawk to the new T-45 Goshawk advanced jet trainer.