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. It began as the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, established on 3 March 1969, at the former Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. In 1996, the school was merged into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada.
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.  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. 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.”  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, the T-38 was replaced by the F-5E and F-5F Tiger II.
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. 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.
Topgun conducts four "Power Projection" classes a year. Each class lasts nine weeks and consists of nine Navy and Marine Corps strike fighter aircraft—a mix of single-seat F/A-18Cs and Es, and two-seat F/A-18Ds and Fs. The Topgun course is designed to train already experienced Navy and Marine Corps aircrews at the graduate level (although it is currently not a regionally or nationally accredited educational program) in all aspects of strike-fighter aircraft employment, which includes tactics, hardware, techniques and the current world threat for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. The course includes eighty hours of lectures and twenty-five sorties that pit students against Topgun instructors. When a pilot or WSO completes the Topgun course he/she will return as a Training Officer carrying the latest tactical doctrine back to their operational squadron or go directly to an FRS squadron to teach new aircrews. SFTIs can also become instructors themselves at Topgun later in their career. Each year, a small number of aircrews do not meet Topgun's standards and are dropped from the course. Topgun trains four to six Air Intercept Controllers in each class on advanced command, control, and combat communication skills. They are completely integrated into the course and participate in most of the training missions. These "AIC" students, some of whom are E-2C/D Hawkeye Naval Flight Officers, go back to their Carrier Air Wings after graduation and are given the responsibility of training all the air controllers and fighters in their Carrier Strike Groups in the art of air intercept control. Topgun also conducts an Adversary Training Course, flying with adversary aircrew from each Navy and Marine Corps adversary squadron. These pilots receive individual instruction in threat simulation, effective threat presentation, and adversary tactics. Topgun provides academics and flight training to each Carrier Air Wing during their Integrated and Advanced Training Phases (ITP/ATP) at NAS Fallon which are large scale exercises that can involve as many as fifty aircraft. These large-scale exercises serve as "dress rehearsals" for future combat scenarios. In addition to training crews, Topgun also conducts ground school courses six times a year. The Training Officer Ground School (TOGS) offers graduate level academics to Fleet aviators, adversary instructors and other officers and enlisted personnel. 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. The Topgun course has changed over time. In the 1970s, it was four weeks long; in the 1980s, five weeks. The final F-4 Phantoms went through the class in March 1985, and the final F-14 Tomcats in October 2003. Programs formerly run by Topgun that have been transferred to other commands or discontinued include Fleet Air Superiority Training (FAST) and Hornet Fleet Air Superiority Training (HFAST): coordinated programs of academics and simulators, training fighter pilots and WSOs in Maritime Air Superiority in the carrier group arena.
According to reports the Navy said the results from ‘Top Gun’ training were dramatic. In the years before Top Gun, 1965-1967 their kill ratio was 3.7 to 1 meaning the Navy would lose one aircraft per every 3.7 enemy aircraft they destroyed. After 1970, when Top Gun graduates were infiltrating back into the Fleet and teaching other aircrew what they had learned the kill ratio soared to 13:1. The fame created by the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School lead to the production of a hit movie in 1986 called Top Gun starring the F-14 Tomcat and some guy named Tom Cruise which created even more folklore about the exploits of Navy fighter pilots at NAS Miramar near San Diego, California.

Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott, and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, in association with Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr., and was inspired by the article "Top Guns" written by Ehud Yonay for California magazine. The film stars Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Tom Skerritt. Cruise plays Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and hisRadar Intercept Officer (RIO) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Edwards) are given the chance to train at the Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Miramar in San Diego. 

CAST: 

• Tom Cruise as LT Pete "Maverick" Mitchell 
• Kelly McGillis as Charlotte "Charlie" Blackwood 
• Val Kilmer as LT Tom "Iceman" Kazanski 
• Anthony Edwards as LTJG Nick "Goose" Bradshaw 
• Tom Skerritt as CMDR Mike "Viper" 
• Metcalf Michael Ironside as LCDR Rick "Jester" Heatherly 
• John Stockwell as LT Bill "Cougar" Cortell 
• Barry Tubb as LTJG Leonard "Wolfman" Wolfe 
• Rick Rossovich as LTJG Ron "Slider" Kerner 
• Tim Robbins as LTJG Samuel "Merlin" Wells 
• Clarence Gilyard, Jr. as LTJG Marcus "Sundown" Williams 
• Whip Hubley as LT Rick "Hollywood" Neven 
• James Tolkan as CDR Tom "Stinger" Jardian 
• Meg Ryan as Carole Bradshaw 
• Adrian Pasdar as LT Charles "Chipper" Piper 
• Duke Stroud as Air Boss CDR Johnson 
• Linda Rae Jurgens as Mary Metcalf

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