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We have visited NAS Fallon a couple of times. Every aviation enthusiast that ever has, knows that it is the location to get up close to the adversary aircraft that train the US Navy pilots to their high standards. Like this desert camouflaged F-16C '52 red'.

 

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Tenant unit at Van Voorhis Field in Nevada is the Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center (NAWDC). That unit commands three major training units. First is 'Topgun', the Navy Fighter Weapons School for air-to-air tactics. This Flanker-style camouflaged F-16B 920458 '04 grey' is used to train adversary tactics. This particular airframs was once slated to go to Pakistan.

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Another 'bogey' is this F-16A 900942 '50 black', also from the batch that was witheld from Pakistan as sanction to their nuclear aspirations. These early generation F-16s are still the lightweight fighter as it was originally intended; nearly impossible to shake-off... Second unit is the Naval Strike Warfare Center for air-to-ground tactics.

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Third unit is the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons School. Here the E-2 crews get knife-edge training for combat-readiness.

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In the cause of the last decades, more adversary training units were concentrated at NAS Fallon. Like VFC-13, a composite fighter squadron that used to be based at Miramar last century, before it became a marine corps base. This particular F-5E 761545 '07 red' is a former Swiss Air Force aircraft and spends its last years in a much more arid environment than the Swiss Alps!

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NAS Fallon preserves its heritage with a commemorative display park. The venerable A-7 Corsair and the mother of all adversary aircraft, teh A-4E Skyhawk are among the exhibits.