Here are some numbers from the Chief of Naval Air Training website (dated in one paragraph as 2013, so please take that into context):
Home Page: "Naval Aviator and Naval Flight Officer (NFO) training and production is conducted by 17 TRACOM squadrons aligned under five Training Air Wings located at five naval air stations in the southeastern United States. This training involves over 700 TRACOM aircraft flying over 290,000 annual flight hours with an annual budget in excess of $600 million. CNATRA’s aircraft inventory and annual flight hours make up just under a fifth of the Navy’s total aircraft and over a third of its annual flight hours. Over 13,000 instructor pilots and NFOs – active duty and reserves – from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard use these aircraft, flight hours and budget combined with simulators, classrooms, and other training media to produce and graduate more than 1,100 pilots and NFOs each year."
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CNATRA Mission: "The Mission of Naval Air Training Command is to train the world's finest combat quality aviation professionals, delivering them at the right time, in the right numbers, and at the right cost to a Naval Force that is where it matters, when it matters.
Headquartered on board NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) leads the Naval Air Training Command (NATRACOM) composed of five Training Air Wings located on Naval Air Stations in Florida, Mississippi and Texas. The wings are home to 16 Training Squadrons.
In 2013, our 735 aircraft logged 254,256 flight hours, nearly a quarter of the Department of the Navy total. To put those numbers in perspective, we flew 28% of the combined Navy and Marine Corps flight hours with 19% of the aircraft. In that same time more than 1,142 pilots, Naval Flight Officers (NFO) and Aircrewmen earned their “Wings of Gold”."
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It should also be noted, if not already present on this site, that
this link from CNATRA is possibly one of the most comprehensive overviews of the SNA/NFO training process– assuming that it is still current. Could potentially be a required read for all new SNA/NFO hopeful forum members (would have saved me from asking a few stupid questions).
R/,
James