The 305th Air Mobility Wing participated in Swift Response 21, the first in a series of exercises associated with DEFENDER-Europe 21, May 7. The 305th AMW was pivotal in providing more than 470,000 pounds of fuel to multiple aircraft that supported various aspects of the exercise. Swift Response 21 is an annual, U.S. Army-led exercise designed to build strategic and operational readiness between the U.S., NATO and other European allies.
“This exercise demonstrated our ability to integrate with sister service units to deliver troopers halfway around the world nonstop from their home unit locations. With so much international participation, this exercise demonstrates to our partner nations and our adversaries the ability and willingness to project combat forces on a moment’s notice, anywhere in the world” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Ryan Lowenstein, Swift Response 21 tanker force mission commander.
This year’s exercise highlighted NATO’s ability to leverage multinational cooperation by inserting ground forces rapidly and providing global crisis response, and featured more than 7,000 paratroopers from 10 NATO nations. Swift Response 21 is a linked exercise of DEFENDER-Europe 21, which involves special operations activities, air assaults, and live fire exercises in Estonia, Bulgaria, and Romania, demonstrating airborne interoperability among NATO allies.
DEFENDER-Europe 21 is a large-scale U.S. Army-led exercise designed to build readiness and interoperability between the U.S., NATO allies and partner militaries. This year, more than 28,000 multinational forces from 26 nations will conduct nearly simultaneous operations across more than 30 training areas in more than a dozen countries from the Baltics to the strategically important Balkans and Black Sea Region.
