During the halt in the bombing campaign against North Vietnam (in force from 1968 until the early 1970s), TOPGUN established itself as a center of excellence in fighter doctrine, tactics, and training. It was one of my best performances. NAWDC consists of 12 departments, one of which is the Training and Standardization Department (N7). NAWDC flies and maintains FA-18C/D Hornets, FA-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, F-16 Fighting Falcons and MH-60S Seahawk helicopters. In our flight debrief, Bart casually brushed the near catastrophe off. The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, better known as Top Gun, is the ultimate Fighter School of the United States Navy and had its home at the former Naval Air Station Miramar in Miramar, California until 1996. But to this day, I still shudder at how close I came to firing on my In 1969, the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) was established to develop and implement a course of graduate-level instruction in aerial combat. The F-14A was also used as aggressor due to its similarity to the Su-27 Flanker and the use of it by the Iran. . The United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI program), more popularly known as TOPGUN, teaches fighter and strike tactics and techniques to selected naval aviators and naval flight officers, who return to their operating units as surrogate instructors. These aircraft (which are now designated F-16N/TF-16N) are operated by the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) for adversary training and, like their F-16N predecessors, are painted in exotic schemes. TOPGUN holds a Strike-Fighter Tactics Refresher Course (also known as "Re-Blue") once a year, usually in the fall, bringing current fleet SFTIs back to Fallon for a two-day refresher, updating TOPGUN's recommendations. Two years prior in 1970 as a VF-121 RAG student, I had the great privilege of flying a few hops with some of the initial cadre of Top Gun instructors; men who to me (and most others) were larger than life, and some of the best Fighter Pilots/ROs I have ever known.... Names like Pedersen, Rullifson, Laing, Gary, Smith, Mckeown, Pettigrew and several others (all described in Wilcox's excellent book about Top Gun's genesis, Those original Top Gun instructors all worked extraordinarily difficult and long hours with minimal support or recognition. During my first cruise with VF-151, embarked aboard the USS Midway and flying combat missions in Southeast Asia, another extraordinary and talented pilot had been tentatively identified to represent our fighter squadron at Top Gun, Don Symington. They had to use VF-126's two-seat instrument-training Over a short time, the "plank-owners" of the VF-121 Top Gun unit doggedly gained a small fleet of begged and borrowed, dissimilar adversary aircraft, a generous budget finally, and put to work a syllabus they had developed that would and did turn the air war in North Vietnam on its ear! The Training Officer Ground School (TOGS) offers graduate level academics to Fleet aviators, adversary instructors and other officers and enlisted personnel. Die United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, besser bekannt als TOPGUN, ist die Elite-Jagdflugschule der United States Navy und war bis 1996 auf der ehemaligen Naval Air Station Miramar (heute: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar) in Miramar, Kalifornien beheimatet. Miramar is with over 24.000 acres (97 km²) one of the largest military airbases in the world (with an excess of ca. flags; flight patches us air force air crew name tags .

It was not until after the war in Vietnam ended that the Air Force initiated a robust DACT program with dedicated aggressor squadrons. "On March 3, 1969 the United States Navy established an elite school for the top one percent of its pilots. Every day started very early with classroom study of a variety of lessons. TOPGUN instructors were knowledgeable fighter tacticians assigned to one or more specific fields of expertise, such as a particular weapon, threat, or tactic.