Allied forces kick off Death Strike: Trident Fury exercise

Dyess Air Force Base, Texas — U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps and Royal Australian Air Force personnel converged here June 22–25 for Exercise Death Strike: Trident Fury, a four-day weapons-generation drill overseen by the 7th Munitions Squadron under Air Force Global Strike Command. The event put continuous, round-the-clock production under the microscope while stressing joint integration and rapid adaptation.

Operations opened with a full air tasking order that forced 7th Munitions Squadron crews to immediately survey available stocks, select lots and move components to production pads. From there, teams ran 24-hour lines, building and transporting munitions to the flightline for inspection and grading. “This exercise tested our ability to take a massive ATO, break it down into a supportable plan and execute it under extreme pressure,” said Master Sgt. Chris Kirby, 7th MUNS munitions accountable systems officer. “With evaluators throwing unexpected daily FRAG [Fragmentary Order] 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.”

Inside the Weapons Armament section, maintainers tackled a key milestone: Multi-Role Pylon Loads. Using a launcher load frame indoors, technicians practiced a quick-turn, magazine-style reload approach, securing heavy ordnance—ranging from general-purpose bombs to Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles—directly onto racks, reinforcing critical backshop proficiency.

Out at the munitions storage area, production was organized into specialized lanes, pairing high-end JASSM work with conventional bomb assembly. Airmen from multiple major commands, the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve trained side-by-side with Marines and RAAF personnel. “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,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jason Buzzard, 7th MUNS senior enlisted leader. “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.”

The culminating phase shifted to Agile Combat Employment techniques on the production pads, pushing teams to generate weapons under resource-constrained conditions. “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,” said CPL Shannon Upton, RAAF, No. 6 Squadron armaments technician. “In the RAAF, we are jacks-of-all-trades — we handle everything from prepping the weapon to loading it and maintaining the aircraft systems. 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.”

On the final day, RAAF maintainers directed a major conventional bomb build, teaming with U.S. Airmen and Marines to lead the physical assembly. “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,” said RAAF CPL. Lachlan McFarlane, 77 Squadron noncommissioned officer supervisor. “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. Seeing us achieve our mission objectives together under a tight timeframe proves we can operate seamlessly in a joint environment.”

Officials said the exercise underscored Dyess’s ability to scale weapons production while synchronizing with international and sister-service partners, a focus they expect to carry into future iterations.