Israeli And US Troops Train Together To Counter Ballistic Missile Threat
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Sat, 03/10/2018
In recent months verbal tensions in the middle east been rapidly escalating, with both Iran and Syria once again in the Pentagon’s crosshairs (just last week the WaPo reported that the US is considering new military action against Syria), and it increasingly appears that it is only a matter of time before the next military conflict. And in advance of the next middle-eastern war, U.S. and Israeli forces are training to one day fight alongside one another to defend Israel against missile attacks from across the region.
According to the Associated Press, nearly 5,000 Israeli and American troops have been training together in Israel for such a scenario. The “Juniper Cobra” exercise includes field training, computer simulations and live-fire drills of sophisticated missile-defense systems. About 2,500 American forces are participating in the drill, which began on March 4 and will run through the end of the month.
“We will practice, train shoulder to shoulder, the same as we will fight in crisis times,” Brig. Gen. Zvika Haimovich, chief of Israel’s air defense command, told reporters at a briefing at the dusty Hatzor air base in southern Israel.
Israel has made missile defense a priority since Saddam Hussein bombarded the country with 39 Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War. Today, Israel believes that the threat is even greater, noting that Hezbollah is now believed to possess well over 100,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel. Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas rulers are said to have a material arsenal of rockets, and Iran has developed long-range missiles that can reach Israel.
In advance of a possible war, Israel is looking back at the 2006 month-long war with Hezbollah, which rained over 4,000 rockets into Israel while Hamas and other groups in Gaza have fired thousands of rockets into Israel from the south. In an unprecedented military incident, last month, Israel intercepted an Iranian drone launched from Syria during a clash that caused an Israeli F-16 warplane to crash, and Israel shot down a Syrian anti-aircraft missile last year.
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