NAS Fallon WIP

[jdhaenens]

A few pics. I'm going to the Fallon Air Show this year so I can fill this out with more detail. I should be able to get some more realistic textures going, and I now have some more info on the ranges and targets to build thanks to Deke.

Flight line from the South

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/9866/nflfline1.jpg


Flight line from the north.

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/1082/knflfl2.jpg


From Eete Mountain (ESE of the base).

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/230/fallonsunset.jpg

Jim

[dswo]

Basic question (not of the model, just of the thing being modeled): what is the Navy doing in the Nevada desert?

[modelr]

Basic question (not of the model, just of the thing being modeled): what is the Navy doing in the Nevada desert?

What used to be done at NAS Miramar in San Diego, California... Top Gun FWS. Among other things. :kilroy:

[jdhaenens]

LOL...learning how to use fighter aircraft. The Navy's Strike aircraft have (since WW II) needed the use of a facility that afforded a bombing range and other target facilities to teach tactics for the basic types of strike packages. Fallon (Van Voorhis Field) is now the epicenter of the Navy's Fighter and Strike Warfare instruction.

Lest we forget the rotary wing folks, Fallon is also the major training and tactics development area for vertical assault training.

The Base Re-alignment and Closure committee (BRAC) moved the TOPGUN school from NAS Miramar to NAS Fallon so that all fighter and strike aircraft (since it's one platform now...the FA-18) now have a one stop shop for tactics training. The VFC-13 Saints, the Navy's main agressor squadron operate out of Fallon in support of the air combat training mission.

There are 100's of square miles of Military Operating Areas (MOA) that ARTCC's Salt Lake City and Oakland have ceeded daily control to NAS Fallon for excercise areas to support the training missions.

Range targets are anything from huge bull's eyes graded into the desert to simulated airports and SAM setups. NAS Fallon has range complexes that are duplicated nowhere else.

Fallon's isolation has a couple of advantages. One, it means that minimally useable land is used for the training, keeping jets out of most folks' back yards. Two, it is a place for squadrons to get together, isolated from the rest of their air wing and home bases, to concentrate on getting better at what they do as a team.

Jim

[Flyboy208]

LOL...learning how to use fighter aircraft. The Navy's Strike aircraft have (since WW II) needed the use of a facility that afforded a bombing range and other target facilities to teach tactics for the basic types of strike packages. Fallon (Van Voorhis Field) is now the epicenter of the Navy's Fighter and Strike Warfare instruction.

Lest we forget the rotary wing folks, Fallon is also the major training and tactics development area for vertical assault training.

The Base Re-alignment and Closure committee (BRAC) moved the TOPGUN school from NAS Miramar to NAS Fallon so that all fighter and strike aircraft (since it's one platform now...the FA-18) now have a one stop shop for tactics training. The VFC-13 Saints, the Navy's main agressor squadron operate out of Fallon in support of the air combat training mission.

There are 100's of square miles of Military Operating Areas (MOA) that ARTCC's Salt Lake City and Oakland have ceeded daily control to NAS Fallon for excercise areas to support the training missions.

Range targets are anything from huge bull's eyes graded into the desert to simulated airports and SAM setups. NAS Fallon has range complexes that are duplicated nowhere else.

Fallon's isolation has a couple of advantages. One, it means that minimally useable land is used for the training, keeping jets out of most folks' back yards. Two, it is a place for squadrons to get together, isolated from the rest of their air wing and home bases, to concentrate on getting better at what they do as a team.

Jim

Well said Jim, could not have explained it better myself. Been many years sine I was there, the desert is beautiful for certain.

This NAS is coming along nicely! Mike :wavey:

[MudMarine]

Basic question (not of the model, just of the thing being modeled): what is the Navy doing in the Nevada desert?

The Navy has a major supply depot near Harrisburg PA........go figure?!:icon_lol:

[Meshman]

Range targets are anything from huge bull's eyes graded into the desert to simulated airports and SAM setups. NAS Fallon has range complexes that are duplicated nowhere else.


Not to mention doing low-level passes over innocent 18-wheeler drivers minding their own business driving along U.S. 95 trying to make a living.

Thank you Mr. Fighter Pilot(s) for making sure I was wide awake in the middle of the day... :wavey: :USA-flag:

[dswo]

Thanks, gentlemen.