KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- The 815th Airlift Squadron, part of the 403rd Wing and known as the “Flying Jennies,” showcased their expeditionary airlift capabilities during Swift Response 2025, a multinational exercise across the European theater, May 11-25.
The 403rd Wing deployed two C-130J Super Hercules aircraft and more than 50 Citizen Airmen from the 815th AS, 5th Operational Weather Flight, and 12th OWF, supporting complex airdrop and airland operations. Their efforts integrated into NATO’s larger mission to demonstrate Joint Forcible Entry, which is a military operation involving the coordinated efforts of multiple service branches to secure a strategic area rapidly, and air mobility deterrence across the continent.
“Swift Response is one of the largest exercises the 403rd Wing participates in,” said Lt. Col. Samuel Bartron, 815th AS pilot and mission commander. “Our biggest success was syncing with the joint NATO planning process to better understand each nation’s and platform’s unique capabilities and limitations. That’s what makes this alliance strong.”
The 403rd Wing executed 28 sorties, logged 62 flight hours, and moved more than 150,000 pounds of cargo and 150 passengers, while also integrating with 65 Air National Guard members. Their missions included heavy equipment airdrops, short-field austere landing zone operations, and rapid High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, delivery and extraction—demonstrating the agility and lethality of NATO’s combined airlift capability, according to Bartron.
“This year’s operations emphasized deterrence and readiness,” Bartron said. “Executing two large multinational formations in different geographic areas while rapidly delivering HIMARS to austere drop zones shows NATO’s unmatched ability to project combat power across the theater.”
In one of the exercise’s most dynamic events, the 815th executed a road landing in a remote region of northern Europe—a critical test of dispersed operations and agile logistics under contested conditions.
“Landing on a road is something we train for but rarely get to practice in a real-world environment,” said Capt. Korey Papa, 815th AS pilot. “It demonstrated our ability to operate in non-traditional environments, where airfields may not be available or intact.”
Papa emphasized how Swift Response 2025 was a proving ground for both the C-130J’s capabilities and multinational integration.
“The big thing this year was showcasing the C-130’s versatility—not just in moving large volumes of personnel or mass supplies to a drop zone, but in hauling outsized cargo and turning it around in a real combat employment scenario,” Papa said.
During one operation, the 815th delivered High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to a forward location, where they were offloaded, fired live rounds, then reloaded back onto the aircraft for extraction.
“They landed, offloaded the HIMARS, those crews went out and launched their live fires, then came back, and we put everything right back on the aircraft and flew them out,” Papa said. “That’s real combat logistics at work.”
According to Papa, the team’s efficiency highlighted the rapid employment capability of Reserve airlift crews, because that kind of operation may take about three hours—an hour and a half to offload, and another hour and a half to load back up.
“Our crews did the whole thing in about 45 minutes total. That kind of rapid employment under austere conditions is exactly what Swift Response is designed to test,” Papa added. “It pushes the limits of our platforms and our people.”
He also underscored the significance of multinational coordination throughout the exercise: “It wasn’t just about U.S. forces—we were flying with and planning alongside NATO partners every day. Finland’s participation this year, as NATO’s newest member, was a game-changer.”
The execution of five multinational airdrops on Norway’s snow-covered drop zones tested Arctic readiness and coalition interoperability.
“This year was less of an ACE construct—agile combat employment using hub-and-spoke basing—and more of a rehearsal for cooperation with our NATO partners and allies,” said Lt. Col. Stephanie Brown, 815th AS commander. “It focused on demonstrating multinational power projection and enhancing operational capability in the High North and Baltic region.”
Swift Response 2025, part of the broader DEFENDER-Europe 25 series, included members from the Army, the active-duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Marines, and service members from NATO and partner nations. The exercise highlighted the alliance's ability to deploy, integrate, and sustain multinational forces rapidly in support of collective defense.
For more information on DEFENDER-Europe 25 and Swift Response 2025, visit the United States European Command website.