Hurley was then selected to attend the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland and began the course in January 1997. After graduation in December 1997, he was assigned to the Naval Strike Aircraft Test Squadron (VX-23) as an F/A-18 project officer and test pilot. At "Strike", he participated in a variety of flight testing, including flying qualities, ordnance separation and systems testing and became the first Marine pilot to fly the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet. He was serving as the operations officer when selected for the astronaut program. Hurley has logged over 5,500 hours in more than 25 different types of aircraft.