NAS Ocean in Virginia Beach, VA is the headquarters of Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic and as home to all the East Coast fighter squadrons, is a designated ‘master base’.
The annual air show for 2025 took place between September 19th and 21st, with public access available on the latter two days.
As befitting a major US Navy fighter base, the show is dominated by the based F/A-18’s. Many of the F/A-18’s were hidden away in the hangars and were off limits to the public but examples from pretty much every based squadron were either on static display or took part in the Fleet Air Power demonstration, along with an E-2D.
Static displays from neighbouring NAS Norfolk included an MH-53E Sea Dragon and an E-2C Hawkeye. NAS Jacksonville, provided an MH-60R, as well as a P-8 Poseidon.
Also on static display was a P-3C Orion from the Naval Research Laboratory at NAS Patuxent River, which was a nice addition.
There were also contributions from the US Coast Guard with an HC-130J and MH-60T, plus a number of civilian aircraft, many of which I’d seen the previous week at Andrews.
Being close to the ocean, there was a lot of vapour forming, so I used the opportunity to once again capture some ‘fluffy’ shots, as well as practising using slower shutter speeds to increase the feeling of movement in the images.\
Hope you like them.
