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Airmen from Davis-Mothan Air Force Base, Arizona, prepared three EC-130H Compass Call aircraft for participation in Swift Response 21 at Ramstein Air Base, May 5.
The live exercise that the Davis-Mothan aircraft will support involves multiple nations combining efforts to train individual units in advanced-level warfare skills such as coordinated fires and maneuvers capabilities.
“Swift Response is an exercise that will help give our Airmen experience crossing the Atlantic and give aviators experience in the sky,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Anthony Rendon, 43rd Electronic Combat Squadron director of operations.
Getting the aircraft to Ramstein and facing new challenges brought on by COVID-19 presented an arduous task. Aircrew worked to comply with different countries’ policies and tested for COVID-19 frequently.
“We’ve been through a lot of adversity, but showing our resilience to get here and continue on has been quite an amazing thing,” said Rendon. “I am privileged to be a part of the team.”
Swift Response 21 is one of several linked exercises supporting the large-scale, U.S. Army-led exercise DEFENDER Europe 21. The objective of DEFENDER Europe is to prepare the U.S. military to rapidly deploy large combat forces to Europe in support of their allies in order to quickly deter potential crises.
“It’s a way of us demonstrating our capabilities with the U.S. Army and then also to our North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, so they can be aware of what we’re able to do and how we’re able to do it,” said Capt. Alexander Fornof, 43rd ECS aircraft commander.
DEFENDER Europe 21 is a joint operation that consists of 28,000 U.S. allied and partner forces from 27 nations, conducting simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas throughout a dozen nations.
“Every time we get to work with people on a first-hand basis, it always increases our ability to fight and win wars,” said Fornof.
Swift Response is designed to validate U.S. European Command’s ability to send high readiness forces into a designated area while advancing airborne interoperability among NATO allies.
