US, Australian and US Marine Corps personnel have taken part in a large-scale munitions production exercise at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, the US Air Force stated.
The 7th Munitions Squadron hosted the exercise, named Death Strike: Trident Fury, from 22 to 25 June. Run as an Air Force Global Strike Command capabilities exercise, it was designed to evaluate combat production techniques, validate operational plans and improve interoperability through hands-on training.
According to the US Air Force, the exercise began with an air tasking order drop that required squadron personnel to assess on-hand stock, conduct lot selection and move assets to the production pads. Crews then entered continuous 24-hour operations, building munitions and delivering them to the flightline for checking and grading across the four days. The weapons involved included conventional bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles.
Master Sergeant Chris Kirby, the squadron’s Munitions Accountable Systems Officer, was quoted as saying: “This exercise tested our ability to take a massive ATO, break it down into a supportable plan and execute it under extreme pressure.” He added: “With evaluators throwing unexpected daily FRAG changes at us, our Airmen had to rapidly pivot and adapt our production on the fly. It validated our ability to surge and sustain operations in a highly dynamic environment.”
In the weapons armament section, crews carried out multi-role pylon loads, using a launcher load frame to load heavy weapons directly onto racks within the facility. Elsewhere, munitions production was split into specialised areas covering both standoff missile operations and conventional bomb builds, with US airmen from multiple commands, the Guard and Reserves integrating with Marines and Australian personnel.
Chief Master Sergeant Jason Buzzard, the squadron’s senior enlisted leader, was quoted as saying: “Having our Marine Corps and Royal Australian Air Force counterparts here allowed us to show them exactly how AMMO does it, while also learning from their unique perspectives. These joint partnerships are absolutely vital. When we can seamlessly integrate our teams on the pad, it ensures we can deliver combat power together in any theater.”
Royal Australian Air Force personnel took a prominent role, leading a major conventional bomb build on the final day alongside US airmen and Marines. Corporal Shannon Upton, an armaments technician with the RAAF’s No. 6 Squadron, was quoted as saying: “We are executing an agile combat operations weapons preparation activity, which essentially means we are working with limited tooling, limited base resources and limited facilities to see how we can collaborate to prepare munitions. In the RAAF, we are jacks-of-all-trades. Integrating our procedures here with the Marines and the USAF has been a great opportunity to see how easily we can cross over our roles to achieve the mission in a realistic, high-tempo environment.”
Corporal Lachlan McFarlane, a non-commissioned officer supervisor with the RAAF’s 77 Squadron, was quoted as saying: “I had the opportunity to lead a shift involving short-notice bomb builds alongside U.S. forces and seeing how well everyone integrated was incredible. It is vital we do this now for real-world operations. If a crisis arises, we need to hit the ground running on day one.”
According to the US Air Force, the exercise culminated in the use of Agile Combat Employment techniques on the production pads, testing the ability to build weapons under simulated austere conditions. Dyess is home to the 7th Bomb Wing and its fleet of B-1B Lancer bombers, and the ability to generate munitions at scale underpins the wing’s strike role.
JASSM with a its Red Stuff 🙂