What is a Fleet Replacement Squadron?

A Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) is the Navy squadron that teaches a newly winged aviator, flight officer, aircrewman or maintainer one specific fleet aircraft before they report to an operational squadron. The Navy's own wording, from a September 12, 2019 release about Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 120, is that an FRS exists "to train naval aviators, naval flight officers, Navy aircrewmen and qualified maintainers" to operate a type safely and effectively. Undergraduate flight training under the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) produces a pilot or flight officer with wings; the FRS produces one who can fly the E-2D, the Super Hornet, the MH-60R or the P-8A. This page covers what an FRS does, where it sits between CNATRA and the fleet, the training categories and the term replacement pilot, the old name RAG, the squadrons that do the job today, and VAW-120 as the worked example.

What a fleet replacement squadron does

Each FRS owns one aircraft type or a closely related pair and trains everyone who will operate it. The 2019 Navy release describes VAW-120 as a Fleet Replacement Squadron attached to Airborne Command and Control and Logistics Wing, with the mission of training naval aviators, naval flight officers, Navy aircrewmen and qualified maintainers to operate E-2 and C-2 aircraft. An April 18, 2020 Navy story repeats the mission and calls the squadron the Norfolk-based FRS for both the E-2 Hawkeye and the C-2 Greyhound.

The helicopter and patrol communities describe the job the same way. The command history of HSM-40, published by Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, says the squadron was established on October 4, 1985 at Naval Station Mayport, Florida, to serve Helicopter Maritime Strike Wing Atlantic, and that its mission is to provide quality training to Fleet Replacement Pilots and Aircrew. It is one of two MH-60R Fleet Replacement Squadrons and trains pilots and aircrew of the Atlantic Fleet along with foreign students. Training consists of ground, simulator and flight events, and graduates report to an operational HSM expeditionary squadron or an HSM carrier air wing squadron.

Patrol Squadron (VP) 30 at Naval Air Station Jacksonville is the Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance FRS. A May 15, 2020 Navy story on the delivery of the Navy's 100th P-8A Poseidon gave the squadron's scale at the time: more than 650 staff training over 800 officer and enlisted personnel a year. A May 20, 2025 DVIDS story states the current mission as P-8A Poseidon and MQ-4C Triton training for pilots, naval flight officers and enlisted aircrew before they report to the fleet.

Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 at Naval Air Station Oceana is the East Coast F/A-18 FRS. A March 22, 2021 Navy story says the squadron was commissioned at NAS Cecil Field on April 27, 1984, that as the Fleet Replacement Squadron for the East Coast its mission is to train F/A-18 replacement aircrew to support fleet commitments, and quotes its executive officer calling it the largest strike fighter squadron in the Navy.

Where the FRS sits between CNATRA and the fleet

CNATRA's pipeline pages end at the FRS door. The Naval Flight Officer pipeline page says that on completing advanced training, flight officers receive their wings of gold and move on to their respective Fleet Replacement Squadron, then names the destinations: maritime patrol students to VP-30 in Jacksonville for the P-3C, EP-3E or P-8A, airborne early warning students to VAW-120 in Norfolk for the E-2C or E-2D, strike students to VFA-106 in Virginia Beach or VFA-122 in Lemoore for the F/A-18F or to VAQ-129 at Whidbey Island for the EA-18G, TACAMO students to VQ-7 in Oklahoma City for the E-6B, and Marine Corps strike flight officers to VMFAT-101 at Miramar for the F/A-18D.

The Student Naval Aviator pipeline page does the same for pilots. Students selected for the E-2/C-2 pipeline complete multi-engine training in the T-44C at Training Air Wing Four, then a T-45C syllabus that culminates in carrier qualification at Training Air Wing One or Two, before reporting to VAW-120 in Norfolk. A July 23, 2026 feature by the Chief of Naval Air Training, Rear Adm. Max McCoy, says the advanced syllabi are built for a seamless transition into Fleet Replacement Squadrons, says E-2 students now fly the T-44C or the T-54A Marlin II in multi-engine training, and describes the T-6B, TH-73A and T-54A glass cockpits as designed to prepare students for fleet aircraft.

The division of labor is clear from the aircraft. CNATRA's mission page says its five training air wings and 17 training squadrons flew 704 aircraft for more than 272,000 hours in 2025 and delivered 1,009 new naval aviators, 234 naval flight officers and 11 aerial vehicle pilots to the fleet. None of those aircraft are fleet types. The FRS flies the fleet aircraft, and the FRS is where a pilot who has never flown anything larger than a T-44C or T-54A first flies an E-2D.

Replacement pilots, replacement aircrew, and training categories

Three terms describe the people in an FRS. HSM-40's command history calls them Fleet Replacement Pilots and Aircrew. CNAF M-3710.7, the NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual dated February 7, 2025, uses replacement aircrew: paragraph 11.2.6 says naval pilots and naval flight officers undergoing replacement aircrew (RAC/FRS) or refresher training are not accountable for the semiannual and annual flight minimums in the manual until they complete the training or transfer out of the training squadron. The Navy's 2021 story on VFA-106 uses the phrase F/A-18 replacement aircrew for the squadron's product.

The syllabus a student follows depends on where they came from. The Marine Corps states the categories openly in MARADMIN 134/18, a February 28, 2018 message on aviation transition and conversion training. Category I is initial accession production. Category II is transition and conversion training, an aviator moving to a different aircraft. Categories III, IV and V are refresher, modified refresher and safe-for-solo syllabi. The message assigns approval authority by category, Manpower and Reserve Affairs for category I and for categories III through V and the Deputy Commandant for Aviation for category II, and says any request that does not fit categories I through V also needs the Deputy Commandant's approval. The same message gives the reason the categories matter: FRS production goals had been hindered by modern aircraft maintenance and training requirements, and the approval rules aim to reduce extraneous training requirements on the FRS.

The NATOPS manual puts one requirement on every FRS regardless of category. Paragraph 2.7.2.2 of CNAF M-3710.7 says the NATOPS evaluation program shall be carried out in every unit operating naval aircraft, and that fleet replacement squadrons shall ensure their pilots, naval flight officers, naval aircrewmen, air vehicle pilots and mission payload operators have successfully completed a NATOPS evaluation before completing the course of instruction. Where that is impractical, the formal course of replacement training is considered to have conditionally satisfied NATOPS requirements for 1 year from the completion date, provided all required phases of instruction are completed, with an entry in the training jacket and logbook that the individual is NATOPS Conditionally Qualified. The same paragraph then gives the fleet squadron's deadlines, which differ by community: pilots outside the VP, VR, VQ, VAW and helicopter communities, NFOs and naval aircrewmen not currently qualified in model must be evaluated within 6 months of reporting to a unit, while VP, VR, VQ, VAW and HS pilots must be evaluated before advancing beyond third pilot or equivalent.

From RAG to FRS

Searchers still type "rag squadron," and older aviators still say RAG. The term comes from replacement air group, the name the Navy used for its training groups until 1963. The Naval History and Heritage Command's chronology, United States Naval Aviation 1910-2010, chapter 9, records the change of name under April 1, 1963: "To bring their title in line with their functions," replacement air groups (RAG) were redesignated combat readiness air groups (CRAG). The group-level name changed; the acronym RAG stuck to the squadrons that did the training.

The squadron-level term the Navy uses today is Fleet Replacement Squadron. The chronology's chapter 10 shows the function under yet another name: on January 29, 1971, when EA-6B Prowlers entered service with VAQ-129 at NAS Whidbey Island, the squadron became the replacement training squadron for all the Navy's Prowler squadrons, instructing aircrew and ground support replacement sailors. VAQ-129 is the same squadron CNATRA's page today names as the EA-18G Growler FRS. The Navy's 2019 and 2020 releases on VAW-120, the 2021 story on VFA-106, the 2020 story on VP-30 and the HSM-40 command history all use Fleet Replacement Squadron, and that is the term to use in writing; RAG is the one to recognize in speech.

Fleet replacement squadrons named on Navy pages

The following squadrons are identified as an FRS, or as the training destination for a pipeline, on the public Navy pages cited on this page.

HSM-40's page says it is one of two MH-60R Fleet Replacement Squadrons; the second is not named on a page fetched for this post. Other communities have their own FRS, and the list above is limited to squadrons a cited public page identifies.

VAW-120 and the aerial refueling E-2D

VAW-120 shows what an FRS does when a new capability arrives. On September 9, 2019, according to the Navy's release three days later, an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye capable of aerial refueling landed at Naval Station Norfolk and joined the Greyhawks, the first such aircraft in the fleet. Rear Adm. Roy Kelley, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, said the capability would extend the endurance of Hawkeyes. The squadron's commanding officer, Cmdr. Scott Wastak, said VAW-120 would begin training instructor pilots and refueling from several Navy and Air Force tankers, including F/A-18s. The release called VAW-120 only the first step, with two operational fleet squadrons to transition to aerial-refueling-capable E-2Ds by 2020.

The April 18, 2020 story reports the next milestone. On April 16, 2020 an E-2D crew on an initial aerial refueling qualification flight off the East Coast, training FRS instructors in refueling procedures, logged the squadron's 1,000th aerial refueling contact. The story says the squadron is tasked with providing aerial refueling initial qualifications for the operational E-2D fleet, that its aerial refueling instructor pilot cadre was building proficiency in preparation for training and transitioning the first fleet squadron later that spring, and that refueling would nearly double the Hawkeye's available on-station time. Capt. Matthew Duffy, commander of Airborne Command and Control and Logistics Wing, said two fleet squadrons would transition that year.

The sequence is the FRS pattern in miniature. The new aircraft goes to the FRS first. The FRS qualifies its own instructors. The instructors then qualify the first fleet squadron, and the fleet squadrons that follow send their crews through the same syllabus.

The instructor cadre

An FRS runs on instructors who have already done the job in the fleet. HSM-40's command history says operational flight training is administered by a cadre of fleet-seasoned pilot and aircrew instructors, supported by weapons and tactics trainers and full-motion, full-visual operational flight simulators that produce complete mission simulation without leaving the ground. The 2020 VAW-120 story describes the squadron's aerial refueling instructor pilot cadre as building proficiency and experience before training and transitioning the first fleet squadron. VP-30's staff of more than 650 in 2020 trained over 800 students a year on 21 P-3 aircraft.

The instructor's job has a NATOPS dimension. Under CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.7.1, each aircrewmember is evaluated annually, normally by the unit's own NATOPS instructors, and the FRS is the first unit where a new pilot or flight officer meets that evaluation. Because paragraph 2.7.2.2 requires the evaluation before the student completes the course, the FRS instructors are also the first NATOPS instructors a fleet aviator ever has.

What to check

• Which squadron is the FRS for the aircraft in question, and does a public Navy page identify it as such? VAW-120, VFA-106, VP-30 and HSM-40 are named on the pages cited here.
• Is the student a category I initial accession, a category II transition, or a category III through V refresher, and which syllabus does that put them in?
• Has the student completed the NATOPS evaluation CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.7.2.2 requires before course completion, or is the training jacket entry NATOPS Conditionally Qualified with a 1-year limit?
• Does a document that says RAG mean the squadron, the former replacement air group, or the combat readiness air group the Navy renamed it on April 1, 1963?
• For a new capability such as E-2D aerial refueling, has the FRS qualified its own instructor cadre yet, and which fleet squadrons have transitioned?
• Does a quoted student count or staff count carry a date? VP-30's 650 staff and 800 students a year are from May 2020 and described P-3 training.

Azcuna's ELLMENT, the E-2D Large Language Model Entity, was proposed to NAVAIR PMA-231 under Navy SBIR Phase I topic DON26BZ01-NV010. The prototype, built at private expense on publicly available doctrine, answers with a page-level citation and refuses when the documents do not support an answer. The proposal has been submitted.

Questions people ask

What is a fleet replacement squadron in the Navy?

A Fleet Replacement Squadron, or FRS, is a Navy squadron that trains people on one specific fleet aircraft before they join an operational squadron. The Navy's 2019 release on VAW-120 states the mission as training naval aviators, naval flight officers, Navy aircrewmen and qualified maintainers to safely and effectively operate E-2 and C-2 aircraft. HSM-40's command history gives the same role for the MH-60R, and VP-30's for the P-8A and MQ-4C.

What does FRS stand for in naval aviation?

FRS stands for Fleet Replacement Squadron. The Chief of Naval Air Training's pipeline pages use the term for the squadron a newly winged aviator or flight officer reports to after earning wings, and CNAF M-3710.7 uses the same abbreviation in paragraph 2.7.2.2, which requires fleet replacement squadrons to NATOPS-qualify their students. The older informal name for the same unit is the RAG, from the replacement air groups the Navy renamed in 1963.

What is VAW-120?

VAW-120, the Greyhawks, is the Fleet Replacement Squadron for the E-2 Hawkeye and C-2 Greyhound, based at Naval Station Norfolk and attached to Airborne Command and Control and Logistics Wing. The Navy's September 12, 2019 release says the first aerial-refueling-capable E-2D Advanced Hawkeye joined VAW-120 on September 9, 2019, and an April 18, 2020 story reports the squadron's 1,000th aerial refueling contact while training its own instructors.

What is a replacement pilot?

A replacement pilot is a pilot in training at a Fleet Replacement Squadron for a specific aircraft. HSM-40's command history describes its mission as training Fleet Replacement Pilots and Aircrew, and CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 11.2.6 refers to pilots and naval flight officers undergoing replacement aircrew (RAC/FRS) or refresher training, exempting them from annual flight minimums until they complete the syllabus or leave the training squadron.

What is a RAG squadron?

RAG is the old term for a Fleet Replacement Squadron, from replacement air group. The Naval History and Heritage Command chronology records that on April 1, 1963 the Navy redesignated replacement air groups as combat readiness air groups to bring their title in line with their functions. The Navy's current term is Fleet Replacement Squadron, which is what the Chief of Naval Air Training and Navy press releases use today, but RAG survives in speech.

What is the difference between CNATRA and a fleet replacement squadron?

The Chief of Naval Air Training, CNATRA, runs undergraduate flight training in trainer aircraft such as the T-6B, T-45C and T-44C and awards wings. A Fleet Replacement Squadron then teaches the fleet aircraft itself. CNATRA's pipeline pages say strike flight officers go to VFA-106 or VFA-122 for the F/A-18F, E-2 pilots to VAW-120, and maritime flight officers to VP-30. CNATRA's mission page reports 1,009 new naval aviators and 234 naval flight officers delivered in 2025.

What are the FRS training categories?

The Marine Corps message MARADMIN 134/18 describes five FRS syllabus categories. Category I is initial accession production. Category II is transition and conversion training for aviators changing aircraft. Categories III, IV and V are refresher, modified refresher and safe-for-solo syllabi. The message says any request for training that does not fall into categories I through V requires approval from the Deputy Commandant for Aviation.

Do FRS students take a NATOPS check?

Yes. CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.7.2.2 says fleet replacement squadrons shall ensure their pilots, naval flight officers, naval aircrewmen, air vehicle pilots and mission payload operators have successfully completed a NATOPS evaluation before completing the course of instruction. Where that is impractical, the course is treated as conditionally satisfying NATOPS requirements for 1 year, provided all required phases are completed, with an entry in the training jacket and logbook that the person is NATOPS Conditionally Qualified.

Which squadron is the Super Hornet FRS?

There are two. The Chief of Naval Air Training's flight officer pipeline page says Navy strike flight officers train in the F/A-18F with VFA-106 at Virginia Beach, Virginia or VFA-122 at Lemoore, California, and Growler crews with VAQ-129 at Whidbey Island, Washington. A March 2021 Navy story describes VFA-106 at Naval Air Station Oceana as the Fleet Replacement Squadron for the East Coast, commissioned at NAS Cecil Field on April 27, 1984, and the largest strike fighter squadron in the Navy.

Where do Navy helicopter pilots do FRS training?

For the MH-60R, HSM-40 at Naval Station Mayport, Florida is one of two MH-60R Fleet Replacement Squadrons, according to its command history page. Established on October 4, 1985, it trains pilots and aircrew of the Atlantic Fleet and foreign students through ground, simulator and flight events given by a cadre of fleet-experienced instructors. Graduates report to an HSM expeditionary squadron or an HSM carrier air wing squadron.

Sources

1. 1Airborne Early Warning Plane With Aerial Refueling Joins Squadron · U.S. Navy (September 12, 2019)
2. 2VAW-120 Achieves Significant Milestone: 1,000th Aerial Refueling Contact · Naval Air Force Atlantic Public Affairs, U.S. Navy (April 18, 2020)
3. 3Naval Flight Officer (NFO) Aviation Training Pipeline · Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA)
4. 4Student Naval Aviator (SNA) Aviation Training Pipeline · Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA)
5. 5Our Mission · Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA)
6. 6Naval Air Training Command: Forging Naval Aviators · Chief of Naval Air Training, via DVIDS (July 23, 2026)
7. 7HSM-40 Command History · Commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic
8. 8PTDO UNSECNAV visits Strike Fighter Squadron 106 · U.S. Navy (March 22, 2021)
9. 9VP-30 Receives Navy's 100th P-8A 'Poseidon' Aircraft · Patrol Squadron 30 Public Affairs, U.S. Navy (May 15, 2020)
10. 10VP-30 Hosts Annual CAG/NARG · Patrol Squadron 30, via DVIDS (May 20, 2025)
11. 11MARADMIN 134/18, Aviation Transition/Conversion Updates · Headquarters Marine Corps (February 28, 2018)
12. 12CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (February 7, 2025) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Navy Medicine (Naval Aerospace Medical Institute)
13. 13United States Naval Aviation 1910-2010, Volume I, Chapter 9: On the Brink, 1960-1969 · Naval History and Heritage Command
14. 14United States Naval Aviation 1910-2010, Volume I, Chapter 10: Defeat and Decline, 1970-1979 · Naval History and Heritage Command

Where this shows up in our work

• ELLMENT, the offline LLM for E-2D crews answers a crew's question from the aircraft's own manuals and cites the page, with no network.
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