DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The 7th Munitions Squadron and the 28th Bomber Generation Squadron conducted a large-scale munitions exercise Sept. 22–25 as part of Death Strike 25-03, a quarterly training event held by the munitions squadron that tests rapid generation, movement and loading procedures required for wartime contingency operations.
The 7th MUNS created Death Strike exercises back in July 2024, focusing on mass weapon generation, pallet build-up, processing of personnel and equipment, and accelerated movement of munitions across the installation.
Death Strike 25-03 was a higher headquarters approved War Reserve Material movement that included large-scale handling, re-warehousing and generation of the entire Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) stockpile. The effort also included a timed break-out of the standoff munitions for transport and the coordinated delivery of the munitions to the flightline.
“The exercise demonstrates our ability to provide the weaponry that is needed at any given time, whether it be a standoff munition or a conventional munition,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jason Buzzard, 7th Munitions Squadron senior enlisted leader. “It shows the strength of 7th MUNS as a whole to be able to react at any time, any place.”
For the first time in more than a decade, 7th MUNS leadership exercised an alternate explosive route where the 7th Security Forces Squadron had to provide convoy duty escorting inert weapons from the munition’s storage area to the flight line. The inject forced crews to employ a secondary route and validated contingency routing procedures under realistic time constraints, according to Buzzard.
“The alternate explosive route gives Airmen another option to get out of the bomb dump and into the fight,” Buzzard said. “We need Airmen at all levels to know how to lead through complex challenges when called upon.”
After munitions arrived at the flightline, Airmen from the 28th Bomber Generation Squadron loaded the JASSMs onto B-1B Lancers as part of the squadron’s generation exercise. Master Sgt. Alex Ponzi, 28th BGS weapons maintenance section chief, said that using two simultaneous load crews reduced weapon-standardization load times by roughly half.
“We can generate jets 50% faster with two crews loading at the same time,” Ponzi said. “What we did in this exercise is we got better. Every iteration that we have of these and the more frequently we can do them, the better our Airmen are going to be.”
While the exercise was internal to 7th MUNS and the 28th BGS, Airmen and teams across the installation came together to support ongoing, real-world mission requirements throughout the equipment and manpower demands of Death Strike 25-03. Leaders credited multiple support units for keeping the flow moving: the 7th Logistics Readiness Squadron coordinated real-world
movement; the Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants teams fueled vehicles on site; and Aerospace Ground Equipment provided troubleshooting and equipment repairs.
“Death Strike 25-03 was a whole team effort,” said Buzzard. “The exercise puts a strain on all these other organizations, but the interoperability and coordination has been awesome. We have strong Airmen leaders that have been able to come in and help us out to ensure mission success.”
According to, Lt. Col. John Rider, commander of the 7th Munitions Squadron, a previous Death Strike iteration, Death Strike 24-02, was a joint exercise with the 9th Bomb Squadron and 9th Bomber Generation Squadron that resulted in the largest GBU-31 training expenditure in Air Force Global Strike Command history.
The 7th Bomb Wing routinely trains Airmen to provide credible, decisive combat power worldwide. Death Strike 25-03 demonstrated the wing’s ability to generate long-range strike precision effects and sustain conventional and standoff capabilities in high-tempo scenarios.