NAVAL AIR STATION LEMOORE
West Coast Master Jet Base — home of every Pacific Fleet Super Hornet and F-35C.
OVERVIEW
Naval Air Station Lemoore is the U.S. Navy's West Coast Master Jet Base and the largest Master Jet Base in the Navy by area, occupying nearly 19,000 acres in California's San Joaquin Valley about 35 miles south of Fresno. Every Pacific Fleet F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C Lightning II squadron is homeported at Lemoore, making it the operational center of gravity for West Coast naval strike-fighter aviation. Strike Fighter Wing Pacific, the type commander for Pacific Fleet strike fighters, is headquartered on the base.
NAS Lemoore was the U.S. Navy's first installation to host the carrier-variant F-35C Lightning II, with Fleet Replacement Squadron VFA-125 standing up the type in 2017. Today the base supports both F/A-18E/F and F-35C operations across two airfields — Reeves Field for primary operations and Reagan Field for auxiliary use — and is steadily transitioning additional squadrons to the F-35C as the Pacific Fleet phases out the legacy Hornet community. The installation supports roughly 7,500 active-duty Sailors and an estimated 25,000 family members, and the surrounding civilian community of Lemoore, Hanford, and the broader Kings County region depends heavily on the base as the area's largest employer.
KEY FACTS
- DesignationWest Coast Master Jet Base
- AircraftF/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C Lightning II
- Largest Master Jet BaseLargest Master Jet Base in the U.S. Navy by acreage (18,827 acres)
- Two AirfieldsReeves Field (operations) and Reagan Field (auxiliary)
- F-35C PioneerFirst Navy installation to host the carrier-variant F-35C
HISTORY
Naval Air Station Lemoore was commissioned on July 8, 1961, the result of a multi-year Navy effort to identify a new West Coast jet base capable of supporting the next generation of supersonic tactical aircraft. By the late 1950s, the Navy's existing San Francisco Bay Area jet base at NAS Moffett Field was constrained by encroaching urban development and could no longer safely accommodate the operations tempo and noise footprint of high-performance jets. After surveying multiple sites in California, the Navy selected a relatively isolated tract of San Joaquin Valley farmland near the small town of Lemoore, where flat terrain, sparse population, and reliably clear weather offered ideal conditions for jet flight operations.
Construction proceeded through the late 1950s, and on commissioning the new base immediately became home to the Pacific Fleet's attack aviation community. A-4 Skyhawks and, later, A-7 Corsair II light attack squadrons made Lemoore their home through the Vietnam War, when the base sent dozens of squadrons westward to fly combat missions from carriers operating in the Gulf of Tonkin. The base was joined by F/A-18 Hornet squadrons in the 1980s as the Navy began transitioning away from the dedicated A-7 attack mission toward the multirole strike-fighter concept embodied by the Hornet.
The 1990s and 2000s consolidated Lemoore's identity as the West Coast strike-fighter hub. Following the post–Cold War retirement of the A-6 Intruder and the consolidation of Navy attack aviation under the F/A-18 platform, NAS Lemoore became the homeport for every Pacific Fleet F/A-18 squadron. The Super Hornet — the F/A-18E single-seat and F/A-18F two-seat variants — began arriving in 1998 with the establishment of Fleet Replacement Squadron VFA-122, and squadron-by-squadron transitions through the 2000s and 2010s replaced the legacy Hornet fleet at Lemoore.
The next major leap came in 2017, when Lemoore became the first Navy base to host the carrier-variant F-35C Lightning II. VFA-125 stood up as the F-35C Fleet Replacement Squadron, training the first generation of Navy F-35C aviators and maintainers. The Navy declared the F-35C operationally ready in 2019 with VFA-147 — also based at Lemoore — and continues progressively replacing legacy Super Hornet squadrons with F-35C units. Today, NAS Lemoore is the singular West Coast master jet base for Navy tactical aviation, anchoring carrier air wing workups and fleet replacement training for the Pacific Fleet.
MAJOR COMMANDS & TENANT UNITS
- Strike Fighter Wing Pacific
- F/A-18E/F Super Hornet squadrons (Pacific Fleet)
- F-35C Lightning II squadrons (Pacific Fleet)
- Fleet Replacement Squadron VFA-125 (F-35C)
- Naval Hospital Lemoore
LOCATION & GEOGRAPHY
NOTABLE EVENTS
- 1961CommissionedCommissioned on July 8, 1961 as the Navy's newest jet base, replacing NAS Moffett Field for tactical jet operations.
- 1998Super Hornet ArrivalFirst F/A-18E Super Hornet squadron, VFA-122, stood up at NAS Lemoore as the type's Fleet Replacement Squadron.
- 2017F-35C ArrivalFirst Navy F-35C Lightning II Fleet Replacement Squadron, VFA-125, established at Lemoore.