Allies team up for Exercise Death Strike: Trident Fury

Service members from the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and Royal Australian Air Force converged at Dyess Air Force Base from June 22–25 for Exercise Death Strike: Trident Fury, a large-scale munitions production event hosted by the 7th Munitions Squadron. Conducted as an Air Force Global Strike Command capabilities exercise, the event aimed to evaluate combat production techniques, validate operational plans and strengthen interoperability through realistic, hands-on training.

Operations began with an initial air tasking order drop that prompted 7th MUNS teams to assess on-hand stock, conduct lot selection and move assets to production pads. Crews then shifted into continuous, 24-hour operations to generate munitions and deliver them to the flightline for in-check and grading across the four-day timeline.

“This exercise tested our ability to take a massive ATO, break it down into a supportable plan and execute it under extreme pressure,” said U.S. Air Force 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.”

Within the Weapons Armament section, crews reached a major training milestone with Multi-Role Pylon Loads. Using the launcher load frame in the armament building, technicians conducted a rapid magazine-reload style operation, loading heavy weapons such as conventional bombs and Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles directly onto racks to refine critical backshop skills.

In the munitions storage area, joint and international partnerships took center stage. Production lines were divided into specialized areas supporting both JASSM operations and conventional bomb builds, integrating Airmen from multiple Major Commands, the Guard and Reserves with U.S. Marines and the Royal Australian Air Force.

“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 U.S. Air Force 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 exercise culminated with Agile Combat Employment techniques on the production pads, assessing the teams’ ability to build weapons under simulated austere 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 Royal Australian Air Force, No. 6 Squadron armaments technician, CPL Shannon Upton. “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.”

Interoperability was highlighted on the final day when RAAF personnel led a major conventional bomb build, working alongside U.S. Airmen and Marines to direct 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 non-commissioned 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.”

Organizers said the event demonstrated Dyess’ capacity to scale munitions operations rapidly with international and sister-service partners by integrating teams and refining tactics for synchronized combat power.