Welcome to our Virginia military bases page! The Commonwealth of Virginia is home to a number of military bases, both active and reserve. These bases are a vital part of the Commonwealth’s economy and play a significant role in the defense of the nation.
The largest and most well-known military installation in Virginia is Joint Base Langley-Eustis, located in Hampton Roads. Joint Base Langley-Eustis is the home of the Air Force’s 6th Air Mobility Wing and the Army’s 1st Infantry Division. The base employs more than 23,000 military and civilian personnel and contributes more than $4 billion to the local economy.
Other major military installations in Virginia include Fort Belvoir, Fort Lee, and Marine Corps Base Quantico. These bases are important sources of jobs and revenue for the Commonwealth and support critical missions for the Department of Defense.
Below is a map of Virginia military bases and more information on each installation.
Map of Virginia Military Bases
The Pentagon
One of the most distinctive buildings in the entire United States, the Pentagon is the home of the Department of Defense. It is home base to the United States Army, Airforce, and Navy. It’s five-sided building is constructed of steel and reinforced concrete and has five floors. Inside are five concentric pentagons with 10 corridors connecting them like spokes. Although there are over 17 miles of corridors inside, it is built to take the average person no longer than 7 minutes to walk between any two points within the building. More than 23,000 military and civilian personnel are employed here along with 3,000 maintenance and non-defense personnel. The Pentagon was one of the targets of 9/11, and reconstruction of the damage from that took over 10 years to complete. The renovations were known as The Phoenix Project.
Fort A.P. Hill
Located outside the town of Bowling Green, A.P. Hill is known as the place where the United States sharpens its forces in every domain. It’s a large base, covering 76,000 acres, one-third of which is used as a training field with over 100 firing ranges. The base is controlled by the US Army but caters to all branches of the Military.
Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir is located halfway between Richmond, VA and Washington, DC. It’s home to over 130 agencies all dedicated to the safety and security of United States citizens. It’s the headquarters of the Missile Defense Agency, the US Army Intelligence and Security Command and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. The mission of Fort Belvoir is to execute mobilization, military operations and contingency and intelligence missions to support overall readiness of the US Army. Many of the units based here represent the entire landscape of the federal government.
Fort Lee Army Base
Located over 8 square miles just west of Petersburg, VA, Fort Lee Army Base is the center of all things logistics. It houses many agencies including the US Army Transportation School, Army Logistics University, United States Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM), US Defense Commissary Agency, US Army Ordnance School, United States Army Quartermaster School and the Sustainment Center of Excellence. When speaking in terms of training, Fort Lee is the third largest training site of the US Army. It is also home to the US Army Quartermaster Museum and the US Army Women’s Museum.
Fort Pickett
Fort Pickett is a facility under the command of the Virginia Army National Guard. It’s the primary training facility for the VA National Guard and Army Reserves and offers over 42,000 acres of maneuver areas, live fire ranges, urban assault and training villages and a forward operation base. There are members of all branches of the US Military here, and all branches use this facility for training purposes. Non-military agencies also train here including the FBI, US Marshalls Service, the ATF and the Civil Air Patrol. Fort Pickett is also the site of the 36 Canadian Brigade Group exercise, a joint training exercise performed between the Canadian Forces Primary Reserves and the Virginia National Guard.
Radford Army Ammunition Plant
Radford Ammunition Plant is under the operation of BAE Systems, a subcontractor for the US Military. The mission of this plant is to manufacture propellants and explosives to support field artillery, air defense, missile, aircraft, tank and other Navy weapons systems. It is currently the sole provider of Trinitrotoluene (TNT) for the Department of Defense. Radford is split into two separate facilities, one of which is the manufacturing facility and the other serves as a storage facility that is located 12 miles from the manufacturing plant.
Warrenton Training Center
WTC is a classified communication complex made up of four installations simply referred to as Station A, Stations B, Station C and Station D. Station A contains facilities for the CIA and Department of State. Station B is used for training in communications, electronics testing and communications development. Station C handles coded signals from the CIA. Station D works with satellite communications. The center is under the command of the US Army, but they run it for the federal government. It is also suspected that WTC has at least one underground relocation bunker for the purposes of continuity of government in the case of an emergency.
Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall
Joint Base Myer Henderson Hall (JBMHH) was created from a combination between Fort Myer, Fort McNair and Henderson Hall as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. It’s run under the command of the US Army, however the Navy and Marines also have commands located on base. JBMHH’s mission is to run the Army’s community and support any and all operations to supports our nation’s Capital.
Medical Center Portsmouth
This medical center run by the United States Navy is the oldest continuously run hospital, providing healthcare to our troops and their families since 1830. It is a state-of-the-art facility that also serves as a teaching hospital, offering research and programs geared toward creating corpsmen of the future. Medical Center Portsmouth’s primary mission is to support the national interest of the country by offering patient-centered quality healthcare, excelling in medical education and innovative research.
Naval Air Station Oceana
NAS Oceana is the East Coast Master Jet Base whose primary mission is to support the flight operation needs of aircraft belonging to Commander, Strike Fighter Wing Atlantic (CSFWL), Commander, Fleet Logistics Support Wing (CFLSW), and other joint and interagency facilities. NAS Oceana is home to 10,500 Navy service members, 10,000 family members and 4,500 civilians. Eighteen F/A-18 Hornet squadrons are located here, along with the largest Fleet Replacement Squadron, VFA-106.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, or NNS, is responsible for the repair, overhaul and modernizing of Navy ships and submarines. NNS can dry dock, repair and overhaul any ship in the U.S. fleet. It enjoys a total of 3,585,289 square feet of production space, almost 1.2 million square feet of warehouse space and owns 800 acres of land. The official mission of the NNS is to provide logistical support to assigned ships, perform construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, alteration, manufacturing, research, development and test work as deemed necessary by the Secretary of the Navy.
Naval Station Norfolk
The mission of Naval Station Norfolk is to support the operational readiness of the US Atlantic Fleet, with the ultimate goal of achieving mission accomplishment. NSN is the world’s largest naval station with the highest concentration of United States Navy Forces. It spans over seven miles of wharf and pier space, supports 75 ships, 134 aircraft, 5 carriers, 5 destroyers, 24 guided missile destroyers, 4 frigates, 8 amphibious assault commands and 7 submarines. Air Operations conduct more than 100,000 flight operations each year, which breaks down to an average of one ever six minutes. Air Mobility Command processes more than 150,000 passengers and 264,000 tons of mail and cargo annually.
Naval Support Activity Northwest Annex Navy Base
Naval Support Activity Hampton Roads
NSAHR is adjacent but separate from Naval Station Norfolk. It has the biggest concentration of fleet headquarters and communication facilities in the area. Some worth mentioning are the headquarters of the US Fleet Forces Command, US Marine Corps Forces Command and the Naval Reserves Forces Command. NSAHR is also home to NATOs Allied Command Transformation. The Northwest Annex is also located within NSAHR, home to 11 tenant commands as well, including United States Coast Guard and Dept. of Homeland Security units and US Navy and Marine Corps Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection training commands.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division
NSWCDD works to produce research, development, analysis, test and evaluation and certification of complex naval warfare systems. They are a leading research and development facility charged with presenting the most up-to-date equipment and technologies for implementation. Personnel are skilled in utilizing scientific disciplines such as physics, mathematics, laser, computer, mechanical and systems engineering as well as biotechnology and chemistry to create new design concepts for current ships and new systems integration
Naval Weapons Station Yorktown
NWS Yorktown is one of the Navy’s explosive corridors to the sea. Amphibious, combat and supply ships can be seen coming and going from this station on a regular basis. Working under the Department of Defense, but through the US Navy, NWS Yorktown is responsible for storing huge deposits of weapons and ammunition in support of the Atlantic Fleet. 37 tenant commands are located at Yorktown, including the Marine Corps Security Force Regiment, Fleet Industrial Supply Center, Naval Expeditionary Medical Support Command and the Navy Cargo Handling Battalion One. All of the tenants and units on base work closely to provide ordnance logistics, supply and related services to Fleet Forces Command and its ships.
Surface Combat Systems Center Wallops Island Navy Base
SCSC is a small installation made up of a hard charging team of 300 military, civilian and contractor staff working closely to deliver highly technical engineering and training support to the fleet. Representing the future of the United States Navy, the team here works to provide live integrated warfare systems in a maritime environment for fleet operations, testing, evaluation, training, research and development. Working in close proximity with the flight center of NASA, SCSC looks to develop advanced techniques for further utilization by Navy experts.
Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek–Fort Story
JEBLC-FL is made up of the former Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek and the Army Post of Fort Story. Like other joint bases that were created during the BRAC 2005 Commission, this facility is two bases under one command. Little Creek is a base that includes four locations over three states and is the major operating base for the Amphibious Forces of the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. Fort Story was originally under the command of the Army, and has a wide variety to terrain such as sand dunes, beaches, marshland and the ocean. Always changing tide conditions make it the perfect training conditions for amphibious operations and transferring military cargo from ship to shore.
Joint Base Langley–Eustis
Thanks to the BRAC Commission of 2005, Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis were combined to create Joint Base Langley-Eustis. This base is unique because the two bases are actually 17 miles apart as opposed to both occupying the same geographic location. The primary host unit for Joint Base Langley-Eustis is the 633rd Air Base Wing. The 633rd, along with its supporting groups and squadrons, work to provide support to all units and tenants based at each location. The general mission of the Air Base Wing and the base is to provide mission ready expeditionary Airmen to combatant commanders in support of joint operations globally. Joint Base Langley-Eustis is also home to the F-22 Raptor Demo Team, which performs in airshows throughout the country.
Finance Center Coast Guard
This facility has the most important job of funneling and distributing all money flowing from the government to the Coast Guard. When the allocated monies are given to the Coast Guard, it is the job of this Finance Center to evaluate the needs of each facility in the country to determine the amount of funding needed. Once finances are distributed, the center continues to follow up and analyze how the money is used at each location
National Maritime Center Coast Guard
The NMC is responsible for licensing of US mariners. Their mission is to ensure a safe, secure and economically viable Marine Transportation System manned by the best personnel available. Using leading edge technology and striving for continuous improvement, the National Maritime Center is the only authority who performs these services.
National Pollution Center Coast Guard
The National Pollution Center under the command of the United States Coast Guard is in charge of monitoring the transportation of oil across American waters. They are able to respond to spills 24 hours a day anywhere necessary. The Pollution Center also tracks the financial standing of all ships that carry oil into US waters. It’s important to ensure that if a spill occurs the vessel has the money necessary to handle the cleanup. The center is also in charge of paying out claims to individuals or organizations affected by oil spills.
Navigation Center Coast Guard Base
The Navigation Center run by the US Coast Guard utilizes the most advanced technologies with regards to navigational systems with the ultimate goal being the safety of all US waters. Some services provided are operating the Long-Range Identification and Tracking helpdesk, managing electronic charting portfolios, serving as the US Government interface with GPS users, coordinating investigation of GPS outages and operating the Nationwide Automatic Identification System.
Sector Hampton Roads Coast Guard Base
Sector Hampton Roads has a wide-reaching mission of ensuring implementation of both national and environmental defense. Search and rescue operations take up the majority of operations performed by this base; however environmental protection is just as highly valued. While oil spills are not widely reported in this region, there are many ships carrying other hazardous material that need monitoring. Personnel here also work to uphold the core value to the United States Coast Guard, being always ready to step in nationwide whenever the need arises.
Telecom Systems Command Coast Guard
Communication is vital to the successful completion of all operations run by the United States Coast Guard. Whether it’s search and rescue, law enforcement investigations or environmental patrolling and clean ups, it’s necessary for Guardsmen to stay in touch with each other and home base. Telecom Systems Command is tasked with staying on top of the most leading-edge technology to continually advance communications systems throughout the world. It’s important that the signals never be interrupted, are clear and understandable, and ready at need. This command is extremely important to the success of all missions at the USCG.
Training Center Yorktown Coast Guard Base
TRACEN Yorktown is known as the site of an “A” level school. A level school allow young students to choose between seven different areas of concentration, including Intelligence, Gunnery, Electrician, Boatswain, Marine Science and Machinery Technicians or Damage Control. The training they receive is extensive, usually lasting between
Attendees are mostly active duty Coast guard, reservists and Auxiliarist, however TRACEN Yorktown also welcomes other US military and foreign students as well.
Marine Corps Base Quantico
MCB Quantico has been under Marine Corps ownership for over 100 years and is known as the Crossroads of the Marine Corps. Used primarily for training purposes, some of the most important warfighting techniques were created here, including expeditionary warfare which is a specialty of the Marine Corps. Quantico offers officer training and career development for US Marines and is also home to a number of active duty combat units. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Combat Development Command, Training and Education Command and the Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) Staff Training program all reside on base. The FBI Academy and the principal training ground for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also located here. Marines stationed here take pride in providing logistical and operational support for all units and tenants on base, focusing on career development end education to maintain the high-level of excellence that the US Marine Corps is known for.
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