​

     The United States Navy Fighter Weapons School was established on March 3, 1969, at the former Naval Air Station Miramar, north of San Diego, California.  It was meant to ensure that naval aviators were the best of the best in aerial combat or dogfighting, one man or aircrew against single or multiple adversaries.

     In 1968, with the air war in Southeast Asia not going well, 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. The U.S. had almost 1,000 U.S. aircraft losses in about one million sorties during that period of time. The Navy and Air Force drew nearly opposite conclusions from the study. The USAF concluded that its air losses were primarily due to unobserved enemy 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, 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). This was welcomed by the pilots of the naval community, who had been lobbying for an ACM training program for quite sometime. The Ault Report recommended establishment of an "Advanced Fighter Weapons School" to revive and disseminate fighter expertise throughout the fleet. This experiment is now better known as “Top Gun”.

     Top Gun defined the undefinable, “what does it take to be a superior fighter pilot”. It deconstructed and objectified the necessary assets that should be possessed by both man/woman and aircraft. Then they trained hard, putting a herculean effort meant to better achieve their missions and save their lives in war. Aircrews selected to attend the Top Gun 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.

     As a result of Top Gun, the Navy kill-to-loss ratio against the North Vietnamese Air Force (NVAF) soared from 3.7:1 (1965–1967) to 13:1 (after 1970), 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. The success of the U.S. Navy fighter crews vindicated the fledging school's existence and led to Top Gun becoming a separate, fully funded command in itself, with its own permanently assigned aviation, staffing, and infrastructural assets.

     Largely due to the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the Top Gun 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 1996, the transfer of NAS Miramar to the Marine Corps was coupled with the incorporation of Top Gun into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center. This marked the end of an era but the announcement of a continuing legacy of excellence in aerial warfare.