{"id":549846,"date":"2025-07-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=549846"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:13:58","slug":"us-philippine-airmen-strengthen-ties-during-cope-thunder-25-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=549846","title":{"rendered":"US-Philippine Airmen strengthen ties during Cope Thunder 25-2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines (AFNS) — \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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U.S. Pacific Air Forces<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong> and Philippine Air Force members <\/span>participated in Cope Thunder 25-2, a bilateral training conducted across multiple locations in the Philippines. The exercise aimed to strengthen partnerships and support the Philippine Air Force\u2019s modernization efforts, promoting regional and global stability.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Established in the Philippines in 1976, Cope Thunder provides a unique platform to integrate U.S. and Philippine Air Forces and enhance interoperability through bilateral fighter training, subject matter expert exchanges and key leadership engagements. Cope Thunder 25-2 also marked the first time a U<\/span>.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong> squadron has deployed to the Philippines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s obvious that this isn\u2019t a relationship that\u2019s simply on paper,\u201d said Lt. Col. Bryan Mussler, 421st Mission Generation Force Element commander. \u201cWe\u2019ve been integrating with them for a long time, and their mentality and approach to operations is very similar to ours.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Subject matter expert exchanges during the exercise enabled U.S. and Philippine Airmen in similar career fields to share best practices and effective techniques aimed at improving day-to-day operations for both forces. These exchanges included maintenance, firefighting, airfield operations, electromagnetic <\/span>warfare and basic fighter maneuvers, with U.S. and Philippine pilots flying side by side. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe worked closely with the PAF pilots, and it was clear they are professional and highly capable aviators that employ their weapon systems with skill and precision,\u201d said Capt. Tobey Fisher, 421st Mission Generation Force Element F-35A instructor pilot. \u201cAdditionally, this exercise afforded the 421st MGFE the opportunity to operate at a remote airfield with minimal support.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The F-35A\u00a0maintenance team supported Cope Thunder 25-2 with a lean, agile team, <\/span>operating with roughly one-third of the personnel they typically have at their home station.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see such a small team come here and execute the mission,\u201d said Maj. Clinton <\/span>Bialcak, 421st Fighter Generation Squadron commander, referring to executing the F-35 maintenance mission. \u201cI think everyone in the region, in the world and in the Department of Defense<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong> sees that we can do it and they can rely on us.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The U.S. Air Force\u2019s participation reflects ongoing efforts to strengthen coordination with regional allies and partners.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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U.S. Air Force Logo<\/title><\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines (AFNS) — \u00a0 U.S. Pacific Air Forces and Philippine Air Force members participated in Cope Thunder 25-2, a bilateral training conducted across multiple locations in the Philippines. The exercise aimed to strengthen partnerships and support the Philippine Air Force\u2019s modernization efforts, promoting regional and global stability.\u00a0 Established in the Philippines in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=549846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":549847,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549846\/revisions\/549847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/108410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=549846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=549846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=549846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}