JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- -- Tankers from 305th Air Mobility Wing recently provided air refueling support to fighter squadrons from the United States, United Kingdom and France during the 2017 Tri-Lateral exercise April 10 – 28.
Directed by the Air Force Chief of Staff, the exercise was meant to test the 5th generation of several aircraft including the F-35 Lightning II, F-22 Raptor, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the French Dassault Rafale.
“[The U.K. and France] have some amazing fighters and it’s important for us to all be working together as one,” said Staff Sgt. Evan Bazeley, 305th Operations Support Squadron KC-10 flight engineer instructor and exercise lead tanker planner. “If there ever was a major conflict, they would be our two greatest allies.”
Although the exercise focused primarily on fighter aircraft, the 305th played a crucial role in facilitating one of the driving forces of the exercise; the fuel.
“It’s almost a sort of unholy alliance between the tankers and the fighters,” said Bazeley. “Some of the aircraft can only fly for about an hour, so without these tankers, the mission would fail.”
The exercise didn’t just test the three nation’s abilities to work together, said Bazeley. It also allowed ‘Can Do’ aircrews a unique chance to practice their skill.
“Normally our boom operators aren’t able to work with foreign receivers until they’re overseas in a combat environment,” said Bazaely. “So this was a great training opportunity for them as well.”
The exercise was designed bring allies from both sides of the pond together and with another training event in the books, air power leaders are hailing this year’s exercise a success with hope for events in the future.
“This exercise was designed to encourage the sharing and development of air combat tactics, techniques and procedures with our French and U.K. partners,” said Col. Peter Fesler, 1st Fighter Wing commander. “This is not only an opportunity to share the capabilities of the air craft, pilots and maintainers between our nations – but to build friendship, trust, and confidence that will improve our interoperability as we go forward.”