Which started with an airfield of 640 acres in 1928 has grown out to one of the most important Marine Corps Air Station in the United States. It's the premier aviation training base for the Marine Corps and is also used by US and NATO forces.
MCAS Yuma has access to large training areas of approximately 1 million acres. These training areas can be used for a variety of training purposes such as bombing. A big advantage is the superb weather conditions the whole year. Therefore MCAS Yuma supports 80 percent of the Marine Corps air-to-ground training and currently is the busiest air station of the Marine Corps.
A large variety of squadrons and aircraft types can be seen at MCAS station.
In 2012 Marine Attack Squadron 121 received it's first F-35B and latter became the first operational F-35B squadron in the world.
The AV-8B/B+ are flying with Marine Attack Squadron 211, 214, 311 and 513 and the Aggressor role is carried out by VMFAT-401 flying the F-5N. These and other squadrons are cognizance of Marine Aircraft Group 13.
A F-5N takes off from MCAS Yuma for another Aggressor mission.
VMA-211
VMA-211
VMA-211
VMA-214
The Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron 1 is responsible for training Marine Corps tactical aviation units. Well known is the Weapons and Tactics Instructor course held several times a year.
Other units like this East Coast TAV-8B of VMAT-203 from MCAS Cherry Point use MCAS Yuma for their training program.