Naval aviators believe they are the best pilots on earth — just ask them — and the primary reason they cite is hard to argue with: they land on aircraft carriers. Whether in calm seas and sunshine or on a deck pitching in a storm at night, the skill to make a carrier landing, or trap, is at the heart of Naval aviation.

But in a major change to how the service trains aviators, the Navy and Marine Corps recently revamped their flight training curriculum so that pilots now graduate from flight school and receive their “Wings of Gold” — the Navy’s formal name for flight wings — without actually landing on an aircraft carrier.

“The final strike carrier landing qualification occurred in March of 2025,” a Navy official told Task & Purpose. “Students in the strike pipeline, those training to fly

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