The U.S. and Israel will begin their largest joint air and missile defense exercise by the end of this month, sending a message of solidarity between the nations to Iran and to American voters just before the Nov. 6 presidential election.
The U.K. and Germany also will participate in the three- week “Austere Challenge” exercise involving as many as 3,500 U.S. personnel in the region along with 1,000 members of the Israel Defense Forces, Navy Lieutenant Commander Wendy Snyder, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.
“The exercise will include missile defense elements, as well as combat-service support units” and participants from all four U.S. military services, she said.
The allied exercise is “no doubt intended at least partly to showcase that extensive U.S.-Israeli military cooperation continues despite the differences between the two nations over the immediacy and scope of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear enrichment program,” Kenneth Katzman, a Middle East specialist for the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service inWashington, said in an e-mailed statement.
Missile Delivery
Iran’s forces conducted three war exercises earlier this year “meant to show offensive and defensive” missile capabilities, the Pentagon said in a June 29 report to Congress.
“Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred method of delivering nuclear weapons should it choose to build them,” James Miller, the Pentagon under secretary for policy, wrote members of the House Armed Services Committee Aug. 3.
The exercise will include personnel and a mobile tactical operations center from the year-old10th Army Air & Missile Defense Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany, the independent military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported in August, citing Captain Michael Bux, chief of passive defense for the unit.
“We’re not going to get into the details regarding the operations until after the exercise begins,” said Snyder, the Pentagon spokeswoman. She said 1,000 of the U.S. personnel will participate from within Israel.
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