Gray Flag 2025
Gray Flag is the naval aviation test community’s large force test event, hosted each year by Naval_Test_Wing_Pacific and VX-9 at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. It puts developmental test, operational test and tactics development into a single joint scenario on the 36,000 square mile Point Mugu Sea Range. Gray Flag 2025 ran September 5 to 19 with more than 2,800 U.S. and allied personnel and nearly 100 aircraft of 35 types.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Large force test event combining developmental test, operational test and tactics development |
| Sponsor | Naval_Test_Wing_Pacific and VX-9, under Naval_Air_Warfare_Center_Weapons_Division and NAVAIR |
| Location | Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California, and the Point_Mugu_Sea_Range |
| Frequency | Annual, typically September |
| First held | Not stated in available public reporting; iterations are publicly documented from at least 2022 |
| Typical scale | 2,800 to 3,000 personnel, roughly 100 aircraft, 500 to 600 sorties, 26 or more unique systems under test |
Overview
Gray Flag is a test event that looks like an exercise. Most weapons and sensors are evaluated one at a time, against a controlled threat, on a schedule set by a single program office. Gray Flag inverts that. It assembles test aircraft, surface vessels, unmanned systems and ground-based systems from several services and several allies on one instrumented range at one time, and asks how the systems behave in each other’s presence. The Point Mugu Sea Range provides 36,000 square miles of instrumented sea and airspace operated by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, and the event layers live, virtual and constructive elements on top of the live participants so that a larger scenario can be represented at lower cost and risk.
The event is styled “Gray Flag 2025” or “Gray Flag 25” in official releases. It does not use a dash-numbered iteration designator.
History
Public reporting on Gray Flag is thinner than on the better-known Nellis exercises, and no official source located for this entry states the year of the first iteration. The event is documented at Point Mugu at least as far back as August and September 2022. Coverage in the specialist aviation press describes it as relatively small in scale but high in technical content, focused on interoperability testing and tactics for near-future capabilities in a maritime environment.
Two things have changed as the event matured. The first is the widening of the participant base beyond the Navy. By Gray Flag 2024, Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force test units were all present, alongside academic, industry and allied partners. The second is the explicit addition of allied testing. Rear Adm. Keith Hash framed the 2024 rationale directly, noting that U.S. forces do not operate alone and should not test alone either. By Gray Flag 2025 the allied contingent included Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
What happens
Test squadrons deploy to Point Mugu for roughly two weeks and fly against a scripted, escalating scenario on the sea range. Gray Flag 2024 executed more than 60 discrete test initiatives across approximately 600 sorties, with more than 26 unique systems under test on the ground. Gray Flag 2025 flew more than 500 sorties with nearly 100 aircraft representing 35 types, and added multiple surface vessels, unmanned systems and dozens of ground-based systems.
The content is deliberately mixed. Developmental test articles fly alongside operationally configured aircraft and alongside tactics development flights, so that engineers, operational testers and weapons school instructors observe the same event and argue about it from their different vantage points. The 2024 iteration is the event at which the Navy publicly displayed an F/A-18F of VX-9 carrying four AIM-174B long-range air-to-air missiles, flying with a VX-9 F-35C and an Air Force F-15E. Other systems evaluated that year included AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-9X, ATFLIR targeting pods and infrared search and track sets.
Units that have participated include Navy test squadrons VX-9, VX-20 and VX-31, the airborne early warning squadron VAW-113, the Marine operational test squadron VMX-1, and the Air Force 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron with F-15E and F-35A aircraft. Allied participation has included Royal Air Force F-35Bs and a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail, with tankers, E-2D Hawkeyes, P-8s and RC-135s in support.
Why it matters
Gray Flag answers a question that single-system testing cannot: whether new capabilities work when they are all switched on at once. Interoperability failures, spectrum conflicts, data link contention and targeting ambiguity surface in a crowded scenario and rarely in an isolated one. Naval Test Wing Pacific describes the collected data as shaping future requirements and tactics, techniques and procedures, which is the practical output of the event.
For an industry reader, Gray Flag is a test venue, not an acquisition on-ramp. Systems arrive at Gray Flag because a program office or a test squadron already has them under evaluation. The event does not by itself lead to a program of record, and there is no open solicitation process comparable to an experimentation event like JIFX_25_3. What Gray Flag does provide is a documented, instrumented, joint and allied assessment of how a system performs against other systems, which is the evidence base that program decisions and fielding recommendations are built on. It is also the venue where new capabilities first become publicly visible, as the AIM-174B disclosure in 2024 demonstrated.
Participants
- Naval_Test_Wing_Pacific and VX-9, as host organizations
- Naval_Air_Warfare_Center_Weapons_Division and NAVAIR, which operate the range
- US_Navy test squadrons including VX-9, VX-20, VX-31 and VAW-113
- US_Marine_Corps, including VMX-1
- US_Air_Force, including the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron
- US_Army
- Allied partners: Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, including Royal_Air_Force and Royal_Australian_Air_Force elements
- Academic and industry partners
Recent iterations
- Gray Flag 2022, August 22 to September 2, 2022. Held at Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, bringing together Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps test units to evaluate systems across services. (Global Aviation Resource)
- Gray Flag 2024, September 17 to 23, 2024. More than 3,000 personnel from the Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force, with academic, industry and allied partners. More than 60 test initiatives, roughly 600 sorties and more than 26 unique systems under test on the ground. Capt. David Halpern called it the most expansive interoperability event to date. First public appearance of an F/A-18F carrying four AIM-174B missiles. (DVIDS, November 4, 2024; Army Recognition)
- Gray Flag 2025, September 5 to 19, 2025. More than 2,800 U.S. and allied military personnel, nearly 100 aircraft representing 35 types, more than 500 sorties, plus surface vessels, unmanned systems and dozens of ground-based systems. Allied participants from Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. (DVIDS, September 24, 2025; Defence Industry Europe)
Sources
- DVIDS, “Gray Flag 25: U.S. and allied forces test tomorrow’s warfare systems,” Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, September 24, 2025. https://www.dvidshub.net/news/549301/gray-flag-25-us-and-allied-forces-test-tomorrows-warfare-systems
- DVIDS, “Gray Flag 2024 integrates joint, allied partner testing,” Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, November 4, 2024. https://www.dvidshub.net/news/484630/gray-flag-2024-integrates-joint-allied-partner-testing
- Defence Industry Europe, “Gray Flag 25: United States and partner nations test advanced systems and integrated warfighting,” 2025. https://defence-industry.eu/gray-flag-25-united-states-and-partner-nations-test-advanced-systems-and-integrated-warfighting/
- Global Aviation Resource, “Military Aviation: Exercise Gray Flag,” October 4, 2024. https://www.globalaviationresource.com/v2/2024/10/04/military-aviation-exercise-gray-flag/
- Army Recognition, “US Navy presents F/A-18F Super Hornet equipped with new long-range AIM-174 missile at Gray Flag 2024 exercise,” 2024. https://www.armyrecognition.com/news/aerospace-news/2024/us-navy-presents-fa-18f-super-hornet-equipped-with-new-long-range-aim-174-missile-at-gray-flag-2024-exercise