This is a list of Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm, Naval Air Wings. A Wing designation consisted a number to differentiate each one and a simple label for the role of the wing. Each wing was formed of a small number of Naval Air Squadrons and were mostly either a fighter wing or a torpedo, bomber and reconnaissance wing, and there included a proposed MAC ship (Merchant Aircraft Carrier) wing.

Naval Air Wings

The Fleet Air Arm squadrons, embarked on the Fleet and Light Fleet aircraft carriers, were grouped into explicit Wings from June 1943. Due to the existing Royal Air Force Wings having the same number designation, each Fleet Air Arm Wing contained the word Naval in its title. The Wings were each allocated a unique number and the name of each wing also contained the designated wings role. There were two significant roles with each wing being either a Fighter wing or a Torpedo Bomber Reconnaissance wing, with the latter known as a TBR wing. From 25 October 1943 some of the Naval Air Wings started to form. Of the Naval Air Wings which the Fleet Air Arm planned to form up, these were never all realised. Those Naval Air Wings which were serving within the British Pacific Fleet were placed into new Carrier Air Groups, effectively disbanding them, to align with US Navy policy, this once the Second World War in Europe had ended, to support Allied operations in the Pacific War against the Japanese in 1945. The remaining Wings were disbanded over the months following, this usually occurred when the aircraft carrier they were embarked on returned to a home port.

List of initial wings

The table below covers the initial eighteen wings that were formed from 1943 onwards. It doesn't include the 18th Naval MAC-Ship wing nor the proposed 31st TBR Wing.

Wing histories

Wing Codes 1943-45

List of Wing Codes of the Fleet Air Arms Naval Air Wings, applied between 1943 and 1945.

Carrier Air Groups

List of active Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm, Carrier Air Groups between 1945 and 1954:

Citations