Country United States Role Fighter aircraft Nickname(s) Red Lightnings | Branch United States Navy Part of Inactive | |
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Active 1 December 1986 – 30 April 1988 | ||
Fighter Squadron 194 or VF-194 was a short-lived aviation unit of the United States Navy established on 1 December 1986 and disestablished on 30 April 1988. It was the fourth US Navy squadron to be designated VF-194.
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Operational history
VF-194 adopted the unit name and insignia of the third VF-194. After training on the F-14A Tomcat with VF-124, and being due to deploy on board USS Independence as part of Carrier Air Wing 10, VF-191 was disestablished on 30 April 1988, before the cruise could take place.
In early 1992 the Navy planned to reactivate VF-194, along with VF-191, as the first two active F-14D Super-Tomcat squadrons. Initially planned to be based at NAS Miramar and part of Carrier Air Wing Fourteen, the idea was scrapped when Congress declined to upgrade the entire F-14 fleet to the D model and limited the F-14D purchase to 55 aircraft (28 new airframes and 27 re-manufactured F-14A airframes). Instead two east coast F-14A squadrons (VF-11 and VF-31) were chosen to transition to the F-14D, CVW-14 and NAS Miramar in late 1992.