Nellis Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located on the northeast side of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada. The base is named after Las Vegas resident William Harris Nellis, an Air Force P-47 pilot who died in action during the Battle of the Bulge. Nellis Air Force Base is also treated as a census-designated place by the United States Census for statistical purposes. The base covers approximately 11,300 acres and has a population of over 8,000 people.

The Nellis Air Force Base is also the location of the United States Air Force Warfare Center. The base is also a major training location for both United States and foreign fighter aircraft aircrews.

Nellis Air Force Base serves three main functions. Area I includes the airfield and most of the mission support functions. Area II is located east of Area I and contains the munitions area. Area III is located across Las Vegas Boulevard from Area I. This areas is dedicated to housing, Mike O’Callaghan Federal Hospital, and open space.

History

Major David M. Schlatter of the Army Air Corps began surveying the area of land that is today the Nellis Air Force Base in October of 1940, while he was looking for a location for an aerial gunnery school. The Las Vegas area was an ideal location as the weather was clear for year-round flying. In January of 1941, the city of Las Vegas bought an airstrip run by Western Air Express, and it was leased to the Air Corps just three days later.

Construction for the “Las Vegas Army Air Field” began in March 1941, and the first commander was Colonel Martinus Stenseth. The early gunnery training included machine guns mounted in trucks and targets on railroad cars, which accustomed the students to firing at moving objects. Because of World War II, the base’s mission was particularly urgent. By 1942, 9,117 students had graduated, with aircraft in use including Martin B-10s, AT-6s, A-33s, B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-24 Liberators, and B-26 Marauders. Today, burn marks still exist from these guns in the desert north of Las Vegas.

In January 2003, the first production F-22A was delivered to the Nellis Air Force Base. The base was selected as the F-22 Force Development Evaluation program and Weapons School for the reason of the similar weather in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, there are 7 Raptors assigned to the 422d Test and Evaluation Squadron for various development and evaluation missions.

In November 2006, the Air Force declassified information regarding an American manned Russian MiG unit used in training at Nellis from the late 1970s to early 1980s. This unit was known as the Red Eagles and used MiG-17s, MiG-21s and MiG-23s to simulate combat to test the capabilities of the F-4 Phantoms, F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.

On April 23, 2007 construction was started on a 70,000 solar panel power generation system that will cover 140 acres. The system is expected to provide 25% of the base's power requirements.