Four C-130 transports and about 170 airmen from Ramstein AB, Germany, concluded the 12-day Exercise Thracian Spring with the Bulgarian military April 6 at Bezmer Aviation Base, Bulgaria. The annual bilateral exercise allowed training and knowledge sharing between paratroopers, pilots, firefighters, security forces, aircraft and equipment maintainers, air traffic controllers, and medical, communications, and command and control personnel from both nations. “We see our interoperability improving more and more as we go, and that’s a major success of this exercise,” said Lt. Col. Mark August, operations officer from Ramstein’s 37th Airlift Squadron who was USAF’s mission commander for Thracian Spring. (USAF report by 1st Lt. Melissa J. Stevens)
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.