United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program

In 1968, Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Thomas Hinman Moorer ordered Captain Frank Ault to research the failings of the U.S. air-to-air missiles used in combat in the skies over North Vietnam.[4][5] Operation Rolling Thunder, which lasted from 2 March 1965 to 1 November 1968, ultimately saw almost 1,000 U.S. aircraft losses in about one million sorties.[6] Rolling Thunder became the Rorschach test for the Navy and Air Force, which drew nearly opposite conclusions.[7] The USAF concluded that its air losses were primarily due to unobserved MiG attacks from the rear, and were, therefore, a technology problem. The service responded by upgrading its F-4 Phantom II fleet, installing an internal M61 Vulcan cannon (replacing the gun pods carried under the aircraft's belly by Air Force Phantom units, such as the 366th Fighter Wing), developing improved airborne radar systems, and working to solve the targeting problems of the AIM-9 and AIM-7 air-to-air missiles.

In May 1968, the Navy published the "Ault Report", which concluded that the problem stemmed from inadequate air-crew training in air combat maneuvering (ACM).[8] This was welcomed by the F-8 Crusader community, who had been lobbying for an ACM training program ever since Rolling Thunder began.[1] Among its wide-ranging recommendations to improve air combat performance, the Ault Report recommended that an "Advanced Fighter Weapons School" be established at Naval Air Station Miramar to revive and disseminate community fighter expertise throughout the fleet. CNO Moorer concurred.

The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School was established on 3 March 1969, at Naval Air Station Miramar, California. Placed under the control of the VF-121 "Pacemakers," an F-4 Phantom–equipped Replacement Air Group (RAG) unit, the new school received relatively scant funding and resources. Its staff consisted of eight F-4 Phantom II instructors from VF-121 and one intelligence officer hand-picked by the school's first officer-in-charge, Lieutenant Commander Dan A. Pedersen, USN. [9] Together, F-4 aviators Darrell Gary, Mel Holmes, Jim Laing, John Nash, Jim Ruliffson, Jerry Sawatzky, J. C. Smith, Steve Smith, as well as Wayne Hildebrand, a naval intelligence officer, built the Naval Fighter Weapons School syllabus from scratch. To support their operations, they borrowed aircraft from its parent unit and other Miramar-based units, such as composite squadron VC-7 and Fighter Squadron ONE TWO SIX VF-126. The school's first headquarters at Miramar was in a stolen modular trailer.[10]

According to the 1973 command history of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, the unit's purpose was to "train fighter air crews at the graduate level in all aspects of fighter weapons systems including tactics, techniques, procedures and doctrine. It serves to build a nucleus of eminently knowledgeable fighter crews to construct, guide, and enhance weapons training cycles and subsequent aircrew performance. This select group acts as the F-4 community’s most operationally orientated weapons specialists. TOPGUN’s efforts are dedicated to the Navy’s professional fighter crews, past, present and future.” [11]

Highly qualified instructors were an essential element of TOPGUN's success. Mediocre instructors are unable to hold the attention of talented students. TOPGUN instructors were knowledgeable fighter tacticians assigned to one or more specific fields of expertise, such as a particular weapon, threat, or tactic. Every instructor was required to become an expert in effective training techniques. All lectures were given without notes after being screened by a notorious "murder board" of evaluators who would point out ambiguities or flawed concepts in the draft presentation. The curriculum was in a constant state of flux based upon class critiques and integration of developing tactics to use new systems to combat emerging threats. Instructors often spent their first year on the staff learning to be an effective part of the training environment.[12]

Its objective was to develop, refine, and teach aerial dogfight tactics and techniques to certain fleet air crews, using the concept of dissimilar air combat training, or DACT, which uses stand-in aircraft to realistically replicate expected enemy aircraft and is widely used in air arms the world over. At that time, the predominant enemy aircraft were the Russian-built transonic MiG-17 "Fresco" and the supersonic MiG-21 "Fishbed".

TOPGUN initially operated the A-4 Skyhawk and borrowed USAF T-38 Talons to simulate the flying characteristics of the MiG-17 and MiG-21, respectively. The school also used Marine-crewed A-6 Intruders and USAF F-106 aircraft when available. Later adversary aircraft included the IAI Kfir and General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; and the T-38 was replaced by the F-5E and F-5F Tiger II.[12]

In addition to maneuvering skill, knowledge of weapons systems was recognized as important. Weapons system knowledge was determined as a common thread among the 4 percent of World War II pilots who accounted for 40 percent of the enemy aircraft destroyed. The complexity of modern weapons systems requires careful study to achieve design potential.[12]

One British writer claimed that the early school was influenced by a group of a dozen flying instructors from the British Fleet Air Arm who were assigned to Miramar as exchange pilots and served as instructors in VF-121.[13][14] A British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, declared in a 2009 headline, "American Top Gun Fighter Pilot Academy Set Up by British."[15] However, the British naval pilots mentioned in the article confirmed that the claim was false and that they had no role in creating the curriculum and no access to the classified programs that the TOPGUN instructors participated in to refine it.[16] An earlier U.S. Navy air-to-air combat training program, the U.S. Navy Fleet Air Gunnery Units, or FAGU, had provided air combat training for Naval Aviators from the early 1950s until 1960. But a doctrinal shift, brought on by advances in missile, radar, and fire control technology, contributed to the belief that the era of the classic dogfight was over, leading to their disestablishment and a serious decline in U.S air-to-air combat proficiency that became apparent during the Vietnam War.[17][18] The pilots who were part of the initial cadre of instructors at TOPGUN had experience as students from FAGU,[18] but the TOPGUN curriculum at Naval Air Station Miramar in 1968 was not of anyone's creation but their own.

U.S. Navy Fleet Air Gunnery Unit aircraft from Naval Air Facility El Centro in the late 1950s

Air crews selected to attend the TOPGUN course were chosen from front-line units. Upon graduating, these crews would return to their parent fleet units to relay what they had learned to their fellow squadron mates—in essence becoming instructors themselves.

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. By the time aerial activity over the North resumed, most Navy squadrons had a TOPGUN graduate. According to the USN, the results were dramatic. The Navy kill-to-loss ratio against the North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) MiGs soared from 2.42:1 to 12.5:1,[12] while the Air Force, which had not implemented a similar training program, actually had its kill ratio worsen for a time after the resumption of bombing, according to Benjamin Lambeth's The Transformation of American Airpower.

The success of the U.S. Navy fighter crews vindicated the fledgling DACT school's existence and led to TOPGUN becoming a separate, fully funded command in itself, with its own permanently assigned aviation, staffing, and infrastructural assets. TOPGUN graduates who scored air-to-air kills over North Vietnam and returned to instruct included Ronald E. "Mugs" McKeown and Jack Ensch. The first U.S. aces of the Vietnam War, Randy "Duke" Cunningham and Willie Driscoll, received no official TOPGUN training, but had, during F-4 training with VF-121, flown against TOPGUN instructors.

It was not until after the war in Vietnam ended that the Air Force initiated a robust DACT program with dedicated aggressor squadrons. The Air Force also initiated a program to replicate an aircrew's first ten combat missions known as Red Flag, and the USAF Weapons School also increased emphasis on DACT.

TOPGUN F-16 and A-4 aircraft in formation over Lower Otay Reservoir

The 1970s and 1980s brought the introduction of the F-14 Tomcat and the F/A-18 Hornet as the primary fleet fighter aircraft flown by students, while TOPGUN instructors retained their A-4s and F-5s, but also added the F-16 Fighting Falcon to better simulate the threat presented by the Soviet Union's new 4th-generation MiG-29 'Fulcrum' and Su-27 'Flanker' fighters. However, the specially built F-16N developed cracks in the airframe and was retired.

Largely due to the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the TOPGUN syllabus was modified to include more emphasis on the air-to-ground strike mission as a result of the expanding multi-mission taskings of the F-14 and F/A-18. In addition, TOPGUN retired their A-4s and F-5s in favor of F-16s and F/A-18s in the Aggressor Squadron.

In 1996, the transfer of NAS Miramar to the Marine Corps was coupled with the incorporation of TOPGUN into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon, Nevada.[3]

In 2002, the Navy began to receive 14 F-16A and B models from the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) that were originally intended for Pakistan before being embargoed. 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 instructors currently fly the F/A-18A/B/C/D/E/F Hornet and Super Hornet as well as the undelivered Pakistani F-16A/B Fighting Falcon.

In 2011, the TOPGUN program was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.[19]

• Michel III, Marshall L. (2007) [1st ed. 1997]. Clashes; Air Combat Over North Vietnam 1965–1972. Naval Institute Press ISBN 1-59114-519-8

• Dave Parsons and Derek Nelson (1993). Bandits – History of American Adversarial Aircraft, Motorbooks International.
• Dean Garner (1992). TOPGUN Miramar, Osprey Publishing, London, 160 pp. ISBN 978-1-85532-246-2
• George Hall (1986). TOPGUN – The Navy's Fighter Weapons School, Presidio Press.
• Lou Drendel (revised 1984) ...And Kill MiGs!, Squadron/Signal Publications
• Dan Pedersen (2019). Topgun: An American Story. Hachette Books, New York. ISBN 978-0316416269
• Robert K. Wilcox (2005-reissue)Scream of Eagles, Pocketstar ISBN 0-471-52641-X
• NFWS & NSAWC
• Top Gun (1986), a movie starring Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer
• Dave "Bio" Baranek (2010). "Topgun Days", Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61608-005-1
• Early Top Gun days as a student
• PAF-Saffron-Bandit-annual-war-games-have-begun