Israel’s military said Thursday that it has begun deploying forces across the country as part of the preparations for a large-scale joint exercise with the U.S. military next month.
According to Israeli news outlets the military exercise code-named “Juniper Cobra 2018” will take place from March 4 to 15 with the participation of 2500 U.S. troops routinely based in Europe and 2000 Israeli army troops logistics units medical forces and other military units.
“This will be the largest Israeli military and USEUCOM (U.S. European Command) joint exercise taking place this year” an Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement.
“The aims of the exercise are to strengthen the cooperation and coordination between the two militaries promote bilateral learning and enhance aerial defense capabilities” the statement said.
The drill would simulate a scenario in which U.S. forces are deployed to Israel to aid the Israeli occupation forces.
“Together they will perform computerized simulations of a variety of rocket threat scenarios in different regions” said the spokesperson.
The simulations will include testing of the anti-ballistic missile system Arrow Iron Dome anti-rocket system the medium-range interceptor Patriot missile system and David’s Sling which was allegedly designed to intercept medium-range missile from southern Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants and became operational in April 2017.
“The exercise demonstrates the strategic and fundamental cooperation between the Israeli army and the U.S. Armed Forces” Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich the commander of the Aerial Array was quoted as saying in the statement.
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark the commander of U.S. Air Force Third Air Force also praised the strong military alliance between Israel and the United States.
“The U.S. and Israel enjoy a strong and enduring military-to-military partnership built on trust that has been developed over decades of cooperation” Clark said.
“The Juniper Cobra exercises continue to strengthen this relationship providing us with the opportunity to bolster interoperability and develop seamless integration with our Israeli partners” he said.
It will be the ninth time the Juniper Cobra exercise has taken place with Israel since 2001.
