18th Air Force to participate in Exercise Ultimate Reach

by MSgt. Thomas J. Doscher
18th Air Force Public Affairs

10/21/2015 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- Eighteenth Air Force units, partnered with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, will participate in Exercise Ultimate Reach Nov. 2-8.

Ultimate Reach is an annual U.S. Transportation Command-sponsored live-fly exercise designed to exercise the ability of 18th Air Force (Air Forces Transportation) to plan and conduct strategic airdrop missions. This iteration of Ultimate Reach partners with NATO Exercise Trident Juncture, currently being held in locations across Europe.

C-17 crews from Joint Base Charleston, S.C.; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, will fly more than 500 Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team across the Atlantic to conduct a joint forcible entry exercise over Zaragoza Spain. KC-10 aerial refueler crews from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, and Travis Air Force Base, California, will provide refueling support during the mission.

The exercise serves to enhance 18th Air Force's interoperability and teamwork with NATO allies and sister services.

More than 5,000 U.S. service members are participating in Trident Juncture. Elements of the exercise is being conducted in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and at sea. Trident Juncture is the largest NATO exercise conducted in the last 20 years and serves as an annual NATO Response Force certification exercise for 2016. Trident Juncture formally ends Nov. 6.