America's Largest Military Bases

Naval Support Activity Crane Naval Base, or NSA Crane, was named after William M. Crane, a Navy officer who fought and died in the War of 1812. Nearly all of the base’s 62,435 acres are owned by the DoD and operated by the Navy.

The Naval Weapons Training Facility Boardman is a nearly 63,000-acre in area in Oregon, just south of the Columbia River. The area is primarily used for training with low and fast-flying attack aircraft.

Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center is operated by the National Guard but is also used by a number of other local, state, and federal agencies. The base’s training functions include live-fire exercises, river crossing, and urban combat.

At Camp Gruber training facility, which was established in 1942 after the United States entered World War II, soldiers train in MOUT exercises (military operations on urban terrain) that replicate urban scenarios, such as collapsed buildings.

Fort Leonard Wood is home to three Army schools: U.S. Army Engineer; Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear; and Military Police.

This facility straddles the Kentucky-Tennessee border. It is the base of operations for many fighting contingents, including the 101st Airborne Division.

Fort Huachuca is located about 15 miles north of Mexico and has been in operation since 1877, when Arizona was still a territory. The facility hosts the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and the U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM)/9th Army Signal Command.

The facility, named after Virginia native and Confederate General A.P. Hill, was established in 1941 and serves an all-purpose training facility, including a 27,000-acre live-fire area. More than 26,000 troops under Gen. George S. Patton trained at Fort A.P. Hill during World War II.

Aberdeen Proving Ground opened in 1917 to train military personnel in the use of artillery. All of the army’s tanks and vehicles over the last 50 years have been tested at the facility.

The Air Force facility is located about 25 miles west of Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. The Air Force has been using the installation since 1952, when it leased the land from New Mexico and landowners. The 27th Special Operations Wing oversees the range, which is also used by America’s allies.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is a combination of Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base and is home to the Army’s I Corps and the Air Force’s 62nd Airlift Wing. Among the 62nd’s tasks is airlifting nuclear weapons and materials.

Another basic training base, Fort Sill instructs soldiers in the use of artillery. Fort Sill is home to the largest field artillery complex in the United States.

Fort Riley is the home of “The Big Red One,” also known as the 1st Infantry Division, whose mission is to “build and maintain combat ready forces” and deploy when ordered. Fort Riley was a mobilization center for units sent to fight the war on terrorism.

The inter-agency training facility is located in south-central Florida and provides about 82,000 acres for use to the public.

Saylor Creek Air Force Range is a nearly 110,000-acre live-bombing range in southern Idaho. The facility features simulated “hostile” radar facilities that are moved around. Simulated surface-to-air missile batteries also operate at Saylor.

Vandenberg Air Force Base, located about 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, launches military, unmanned and commercial satellites into polar orbit, and also tests intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Camp Pendleton is the largest Marine Corps expeditionary training facility on the West Coast. The Marines use coastal and mountain terrain to maintain combat readiness.

Fort Drum is one of the largest military facilities in the Northeast. It is home to the 10th Mountain Division, a light infantry unit that specializes in fighting in difficult terrain and weather conditions.

At Fort Knox, the Army developed a battle doctrine that emphasized utilization of new weapons and prompted the Army to take a more offensive role in Central Europe in the 1980s. The doctrine was employed successfully during the Gulf War.

Pohakuloa Training Area is located on a plateau in a mountainous region on the Island of Hawaii and provides logistics and airfield support to the Army. The facility was used as a training area for Marines as they prepared for the invasions of Saipan and Iwo Jima in World War II.

Camp Shelby, which opened in 1917, is a joint forces training center located in southern Mississippi. The facility is a training area for the M1 Abrams Tank and Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles.

The Colorado facility southwest of Colorado Springs is one of the nation’s youngest military installations, where soldiers are trained to fight in mountainous terrain.

Fort McCoy is the largest military base in Wisconsin. Since 1990, the federal government has spent more than $265.6 million on new construction at the base.

The Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada is the world’s largest ammunition depot. Among its missions is to demilitarize ammunition stockpiles by burning and detonating ordnance.

The California facility has been an Army installation since 1940, after the federal government bought the land from publishing mogul William Randolph Hearst Jr. and other landowners. Today, the instillation is used for large-scale joint training exercises.

This huge military base, opened in 1918, is home to the XVIII Airborne Corps and the 82nd Airborne Division, the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, and the U.S. Army Parachute Team.

Fort Benning, over 100 years old, has been a center of innovation in areas such as tank maneuver warfare, airborne operations, and airmobile strategy.

Fort Hood is home to the 1st Cavalry Division. The second biggest military installation in Texas suspended live-round firing in July 2018 and helped firefighters put out wildfires in Texas.

Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site is located in Colorado. The barren area of the state was purchased by the Army for training purposes in 1983 and is used for military maneuvers.

Fort Polk, named after a Confederate general, is known for its joint training facility, the Joint Readiness Training Center. About half of the 1.6 million American service men and women who have been deployed overseas since 9/11 trained at Fort Polk.

Fort Stewart is where the 3rd Infantry Division is based. During World War II, the facility housed more than 55,000 soldiers as the United States prepared for the D-Day invasion.

Edwards Air Force Base is one of the largest bases in the Air Force. It is home to the 412th Test Wing, which analyzes and tests aircraft and weapons systems.

The massive military installation in the Pacific Northwest has been in operation since just before the United States entered World War II. It serves the Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Army National Guard units, as well as the Marine Corps, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard units, and contingents from Canada and Japan.

The training range is a large military area in northern Utah with 19,000 square miles of restricted airspace. Missions flown into the facility are coordinated with Hill Air Force Base about 40 miles away near Ogden, Utah.

Eglin Air Force Base is home to the 96th Test Wing, the largest in the Air Force. The 96th tests non-nuclear munitions, navigational, and guidance systems.

Aviation combat crews have trained at the Chocolate Mountain Air Gunnery Range since World War II. The range is located east of the Salton Sea in southeastern California.

This naval facility is contiguous to another naval installation at China Lake. The area was rocked by earthquakes this past July, and damage to the facilities, where some of the most advanced weaponry is tested, might cost as much as $2 billion to repair.

Cusick Survival Training Site in Washington state is where Air Force airmen and airwomen train to survive in harsh conditions. They are taught evasive tactics, the art of camouflage, and other survival skills.

Utah Test and Training Range South is located in Utah’s western desert. The Air Force is pushing to expand the training range by taking over land currently under the control of the Bureau of Land Management to accommodate testing of a new fleet of F-35 fighter jets.

This California-based military installation conducts live-fire, combined arms training to ensure readiness of combat forces.

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is located in the western portion of the Mojave Desert in California, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. The facility develops and tests weapons.

The western portion of the sprawling Barry Goldwater Range is a Marine Corps base — and it is where Marine pilots are trained before deployment.

Fort Jonathan Wainwright, one of the biggest physical military facilities in Alaska, was first established as an Army Air Corps base in 1939 to test aircraft in Arctic conditions.

The Dugway Proving Ground in northwestern Utah was established in 1942 and was created to test chemical and biological weapons.

The training site is part of the Fort Wainwright complex and borders Eielson Air Force Base to the north and east. The site is used to train soldiers in small weapons systems.

Yuma Proving Ground is one of the largest military installations in the world and is used by 10 other nations for weapons testing. The AH-64 Apache helicopter, the M-1 Abrams tank, and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle underwent developmental training at Yuma.

Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range, named after the long-serving Arizona senator, is located near the Mexico border. The facility has been training military pilots since 1941.

Fort Bliss, established in 1848, is located at the corner of Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. It is known for its Ranger training regimen and is also home to the 1st Armored Division.

Nellis Air Force Base is located at the Nevada Test and Training Range, the biggest contiguous air and ground space facility available for peace-time military operations in the world.

With more than 3.5 million acres, White Sands Missile Range is the nation’s largest open air firing range. NASA also used White Sands for a training site for space shuttle pilots and as an alternative landing location for the shuttle. Satellite tests also are held there.