The 6 Largest Navy Bases & Their Strategic Roles

What are the largest Navy air stations, and what are their strategic roles? There are many ways to measure a base’s size, including acreage, personnel, number of aircraft stationed, and flight operations. It is difficult to provide rankings for some of these measures. For example, training aircraft may be stationed permanently, but aircraft carrier strike groups with F-35 and F/A-18 fighter jets fluctuate with deployments. It’s also worth noting that the Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy. Sometimes it has its own stations, and at other times it uses Navy stations.