At the invitation of the Serbian government, U.S. Army paratroopers from the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, will conduct a bilateral Serbian and U.S. airborne exercise this week.
Exercise Double Eagle begins tomorrow and runs through Nov. 17 at Batajnica Airfield, Serbia.
Double Eagle is designed to enhance U.S. and Serbian relationships, foster areas of mutual interest and contribute to regional security and peace, U.S. European Command officials said.
Improving Cooperation and Dialogue
About 100 service members from the 173rd Airborne Brigade and two C-130J's and their aircrews from the 86th Airlift Wing based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, will participate in the exercise. In addition to extensive joint military training, service members will exchange jump wings as a token of the joint cooperation, officials said.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade is the Army's contingency response force in Europe and provides rapidly deployable forces to the U.S. Army Europe area of responsibility.
NATO and Serbia have steadily improved cooperation and dialogue since the country joined the Partnership for Peace program and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in 2006. Serbia signed its individual partnership action plan with NATO in 2015.