Naval Air Station Kingsville

Naval Air Station Kingsville or NAS Kingsville (NASK) (IATA: NQI, ICAO: KNQI, FAA LID: NQI) is a United States Navy Naval Air Station located approximately 3 miles east of Kingsville, Texas in Kleberg County. NAS Kingsville is under the jurisdiction of Navy Region Southeast and is the headquarters of Training Air Wing Two. The station also operates a nearby satellite airfield, NALF Orange Grove.

Naval Air Station Kingsville
Near Kingsville, Texas in the United States
A T-45C Goshawk painted in pre-World War II tactical colors in celebration of the Centennial of Naval Aviation, flies over NAS Kingsville during 2010
NAS Kingsville Location in the United States
Coordinates	27°30′16″N 97°48′29″W
Type	Naval Air Station
Site information
Owner	Department of Defense
Operator	US Navy
Controlled by	Navy Region Southeast
Condition	Operational
Website	Official website
Site history
Built	1942 (1942)
In use	1942 – present
Garrison information
Current commander	Captain Eric Bromley
Garrison	Training Air Wing Two
Airfield information
Identifiers	IATA: NQI, ICAO: KNQI, FAA LID: NQI, WMO: 722516
Elevation	15.2 metres (50 ft) AMSL
Runways Direction Length and surface 17L/35R 2,438.7 metres (8,001 ft) Porous European Mix (PEM) 17R/35L 2,438.4 metres (8,000 ft) PEM 13L/31R 2,438.4 metres (8,000 ft) PEM 13R/31L 2,438.4 metres (8,000 ft) PEM
Source: Federal Aviation Administration

Founded in 1942 as Naval Auxiliary Air Station (NAAS) Kingsville, it served nearby Naval Air Station Corpus Christi as an auxiliary field, aiding in training many of the U.S Navy's pilots for World War II. Some of the Kingsville Naval Auxiliary Fields were assigned to NAAS Kingsville. In 1968, the airfield was redesignated as Naval Air Station Kingsville, and has hosted flight training operations throughout its existence. Additionally, NAS Kingsville organizes and hosts the annual Wings Over South Texas Air Show.

Current operations

TA-4J Skyhawk of TW-2.

Naval Air Station Kingsville is one of the U.S. Navy’s premier locations for jet aviation training. The naval air station’s primary mission is to train Student Naval Aviators for the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps and tactical jet pilots for other select NATO and Allied countries. To accomplish its mission, NAS Kingsville is home to Training Air Wing Two and several tenant commands, military as well as civilian, with a total complement of approximately 300 officers, 200 enlisted, 350 civilian personnel, and 625 contract maintenance personnel. The wing was the first in the Navy to operate the Boeing T-45 Goshawk aircraft, providing a single carrier-capable aircraft to replace the North American Rockwell T-2 Buckeye and the McDonnell Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk II in the Navy's strike pilot training pipeline. Originally equipped with the T-45A model of the Goshawk, the wing began accepting new production T-45C model aircraft in 2005, which replaces the earlier T-45A aircraft's analog cockpit with a digital or "glass" cockpit similar to what students will find when they transition to operational fleet combat aircraft. All T-45A aircraft at NAS Kingsville are slated to be retrofitted and upgraded to a T-45C configuration under the T-45 Required Avionics Modernization Program (T-45 RAMP), with a select number of RAMP modified aircraft slated for transfer to Training Air Wing SIX at NAS Pensacola, Florida in support of Student Naval Flight Officer training under the Undergraduate Military Flight Officer (UMFO) program.

NAS Kingsville is home to the U.S. Army Reserve 812th Quartermaster Company.

The NAS Kingsville Operations Department operates the airfield and provides services to support operations of activity, tenant, and transiting aircraft; provides firefighting functions, both structural fire and rescue; provides air traffic control; operates the air terminal; schedules administrative and proficiency flights; repairs and maintains station ground electronics equipment; stores, maintains, and issues assigned ordnance and munitions; operates firing ranges; operates aerial targets, bombing ranges, and auxiliary landing fields. NAS Kingsville also has both Military and Civilian security which man the entry control points and conduct vehicle inspections and patrols.

Tenant Units

• Training Air Wing Two
  • Training Squadron 21 (VT-21) "Fighting Redhawks"
  • Training Squadron 22 (VT-22) "Golden Eagles"
• Naval Branch Health Clinic Kingsville
• Contract Employers included L-3 Vertex, Fidelity Technologies, and Rolls-Royce
• CNATRA Detachment
• U.S. Army Reserve 812th Quartermaster Company

Former Tenant Units

• 7th Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment, F Company (MEDEVAC)
• Training Squadron Twenty Three (VT23)"Professionals"

See also

• List of T-45 Goshawk losses
• List of United States Navy airfields

References

• Naval Air Station Kingsville (official site)
• FAA Airport Form 5010 for NQI PDF
• Naval Air Station Kingsville GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 2006-10-27
• KNQI Kingsville Naval Air Station AirNav.com Retrieved 2006-10-27

External links

• Official website
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective November 28, 2024
• Resources for this U.S. military airport:
  • FAA airport information for NQI
  • AirNav airport information for KNQI
  • ASN accident history for NQI
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KNQI