In 1940, the United States Army established Camp Seeley;[2] its combat firing range site is within the current boundaries of the El Centro Naval Reservation.

[3] In 1941 the Civil Aeronautics Administration offered to replace the small airport in Imperial, California with a larger complex consisting of two 4,500ft runways.

[4] The expansion of MCAS El Centro was done by Vinson & Pringle and Del E. Webb Construction Company out of Phoenix, Arizona.

In November 1947, the Parachute Experimental Division from Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey moved to El Centro.

In 2011, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex trained at El Centro and at Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field.

The desert range is used for air-to-ground bombing, rocket firing, strafing, dummy drops and mobile land target training.

The addition of the Display and Debriefing Subsystem, known as DDS, expanded the role of NAF El Centro to include air combat training by utilizing remote television, acoustical and laser scoring systems.