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TEL AVIV, Israel – Exercise Juniper Cobra, a joint U.S.-Israel ballistic missile defense exercise formally concluded March 15 after several weeks of robust training between U.S. and Israel military personnel on shared capabilities and interoperability via computer simulations and live-scenarios.
Planning for the ninth biennial exercise began in late 2016. Activities and preparations associated with the exercise began in late January, and continued through March 20. The exercise involved more than 2,500 U.S. personnel and approximately 2,000 Israeli personnel.
“It was an honor to lead this team of true professionals through completion of U.S. European Command’s top priority exercise for 2018,” said U.S. Air Force Third Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, who also serves as the commander for the deployable Joint Task Force-Israel.
“Juniper Cobra 2018 proved to be an incredibly challenging and realistic scenario, requiring trust, communication and collaboration with our Israeli partners,” Clark said. “The relationships built over the last two weeks help bolster our interoperability and pave the path for future engagements and exercises.”
Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and civilians took part in a wide array of joint training opportunities in various locations throughout Israel, ranging from mass casualty response to ballistic missile defense.
“This exercise gave us, as a Marine unit, an opportunity to integrate, train and work bilaterally with the Israel Defense Force (IDF),” said U.S. Marine Capt. Garrett Johnson, a company commander for Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “I think the concepts that we were able to learn throughout this exercise are something that we’re going to carry forward and be able to apply in the future. It was definitely something that benefited us and will make us stronger as we go to the next training environment.”
The exercise was able to achieve its goal of improving coordination between the U.S. and Israel militaries by enabling participants to learn from each other’s knowledge and experience.
"The deep bond shared by Israel and the United States is based on shared values and interests,” said Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, Head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate. “Our two democracies share core values and complement each other in operational and military cooperation.”
JC18 was cooperatively planned over the last year and a half and, though driven by the overall situation in the Middle East, the exercise was not related to any specific real-world events.
Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander, U.S. European Command, traveled to Israel March 9-11 to meet with U.S. and Israeli leadership and troops participating in the exercise, and was pleased with the coordination and teamwork.
“The U.S. and Israel have a steadfast military to military relationship built on trust developed over decades of cooperation,” Scaparrotti said. “We value the relationships we have with our IDF counterparts, and we will continue to work alongside them to promote stability throughout the region.”
The exercise also included visits from other U.S. and Israeli leaders, to include Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Vice Adm. Lisa Franchetti, U.S. 6th Fleet Commander, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, Israel Air Force Commander, and Fleet Master Chief Crispian Addington, U.S. European Command Senior Enlisted Leader.
“I would just like to say thank you the troops,” Addington said during his visit with exercise participants in Israel. “You are doing a phenomenal job and you continued to build on the teamwork and partnership that was started in 2001 with this exercise, taking it to new levels.”
For more information about U.S. European Command visit http://www.eucom.mil/.
For more information about Juniper Cobra 2018 visit https://www.dvidshub.net/feature/JuniperCobra.
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U.S. European Command is one of two U.S. forward-deployed geographic combatant commands whose area of focus spans across Europe, portions of Asia and the Middle East, the Arctic and Atlantic oceans. The command is comprised of more than 60,000 military and civilian personnel and is responsible for U.S. defense operations, relations with NATO and 51 countries. For more information about U.S. European Command, visit http://www.eucom.mil/.
| Date Taken: | 03.21.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 03.22.2018 04:00 |
| Story ID: | 270188 |
| Location: | IL |
| Web Views: | 131 |
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This work, Joint U.S.-Israel Exercise Juniper Cobra 2018 Concludes, by SCPO Michael McNabb, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
