City Desk :
A six-day bilateral tactical airlift exercise between the air forces of Bangladesh and the United States will begin in Bangladesh on February 20.
The six-day exercise-“Cope South 22”-will be held at Dhaka’s Kurmitola Cantonment and Operating Location-Alpha in Sylhet, and is aimed at bolstering bilateral ties through tactical airlift sorties and subject-matter expert exchanges, according to the Pacific Air Forces website.
Some 77 US airmen from the 374th Airlift Wing of Yokota Air Base in Japan, along with two Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft from the 36th Airlift Squadron (AS) will join approximately 300 Bangladesh Air Force personnel and two Bangladeshi C-130Js for the exercise, it said.
The goals of the Pacific Air Forces-sponsored bilateral tactical airlift exercise include improving interoperability with the Bangladesh Air Force and supporting the armed forces of Bangladesh’s long-term modernization efforts in order to maintain regional stability, reports BSS.
This will be done by conducting flight operations to include aircraft generation and recovery, daytime low-level navigation, tactical airdrop, and air-land missions, as well as subject-matter expert exchanges in the operations, maintenance and rigging career fields, according to the US Pacific Air Force.
“The Bangladesh Air Force is one of our most important regional partners, and Cope South allows us to strengthen this partnership through tactical airlift sorties and subject-matter expert exchanges,” said Lt Col Kira Coffey, 36AS director of operations.
