Spanish wolves in the US: two NH90 military helicopters from Wing 48 in Sentry South

In recent days we have seen here the embarkation of two Spanish NH90s from Wing 48 onto two A400Ms and their arrival in the United States.

The arrival of two Spanish NH90 Lobo helicopters in the USA aboard two A400Ms
The loading of two NH90 military helicopters onto two Spanish A400M Atlas aircraft

As we have already seen, this deployment is intended to participate in the Southern Strike 2026 special operations exercise, organized by the Mississippi Air National Guard at the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) in that southern state.

In the last few hours, the United States Army National Guard and Air National Guard (ANG) have published more photos of this Spanish deployment through DVIDShub.net, the multimedia portal of the U.S. Armed Forces, here, here, and here about this Spanish deployment. You can see some of the images here.

In these photos we can see the two NH90 Lobo (Wolf) helicopters of the 48th Wing of the Spanish Air Force sent to this exercise, specifically the HD.29-17 (803-17) and the HD.29-18 (803-18).

In the released images, we see the HD.29-17 with a 12.7 mm FN M3M machine gun mounted on its port hatch, with the gunner leaning out. This model has mounts for the M3M on both side hatches.

We also see the Wescam MX-15 EO/IR imaging system mounted on the port side, which includes electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) cameras. This system enhances the aircraft crew's vision capabilities in special operations, surveillance, reconnaissance, and search and rescue missions.

The images released in the last few hours correspond to the Sentry South 26-2 phase of Exercise Southern Strike 2026. This phase runs from February 20 to March 6. Approximately 1,100 military personnel are participating in this phase, which is a "training exercise strengthens participants' readiness to respond to realistic enemy threats in major combat operations and joint operations at sea.", as reported yesterday by the Air National Guard.

The photos we see of the NH90 Lobo at an airport were taken at the Gulfport Combat Readiness Training Center, in Mississippi, the place where the Spanish helicopters arrived a few days ago aboard two A400M Atlas from the 31st Wing of the Air Force, the T.23-10 (31-30) and the T.23-13 (31-33).

In this image we see one of the Spanish NH90s, HD.29-18 (803-18), in one of the hangars at Gulfport CRTC. This is the hangar we saw here last Sunday, where the personnel of Wing 48 made their helicopters airworthy, as they arrived in the United States with the main rotor, two of the tail rotor blades, and the stabilizer removed.

In this other image we see Air Force personnel disembarking from HD.29-11 (803-17) during initial flight tests during exercise Sentry South 26-2, in Gulfport.

The other images in which we see the NH90s flying over a wooded area were taken at Hagler Field, a U.S. Army National Guard helicopter base at the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center (CSJFTC), a Mississippi National Guard installation in Greene County, established in 1917 and currently used for battalion-sized exercises mainly by elements of the U.S. Army Reserve, but also by units from the other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Furthermore, the ANG has released two images of the Spanish C-295M from Wing 35 sent to this exercise, T.21-08 (35-08). It's worth remembering that Wing 35, based in Getafe (Madrid), includes the 353 Special Operations Squadron. The patches worn by the crew of this C-295 are from that squadron.

+ UPDATED 28.2.2026 20:53h: Fly By Wire Aviation has just published a video with images of this Spanish deployment in the USA:

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Photos: U.S. Army National Guard / U.S. Air National Guard.