Breaking news
NATO conducting several large scale military exercises as tensions with Iran and Syria on the rise.
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Naval Forces News - NATO, USA, UK, France... |
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NATO conducting several large scale military exercises as tensions with Iran and Syria on the rise | |||
While tensions
with Iran and Syria are rising on the international scene, NATO members
are conducting (or will soon conduct) several large scale "joint"
military maneuvers. These maneuvers have two roles: Send a strong
message to the regimes and keep NATO armies, navies and air forces
ready to work together should they intervene. |
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French Navy Mistral LHD (background) with a US Navy LCAC (foreground) escorted by a French Army Helicopter. Joint amphiibious operations between allied forces is one of the focus of Exercise Bold Alligator 2012 (picture: French Navy) |
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The Exercise is designed to practice close air support operations and forward air control techniques. This training is essential for ground forces and allows them to practice various techniques and procedures before possible deployment to an operational theatre. Aircraft types involved in Exercise Gallic Marauder include Rafale, Mirage and Super Etendard jet aircraft of the French Navy and the French Air Force as well as Hawks from the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and Lynx AH1 from Army Air Corps. During the campaign in Lybia several reports indicated the presence on the ground of British and French FAC (Forward Air Controllers) and JTAC (Joint terminal attack controllers). Without this key element, coallition airplanes would have had more difficulties to identify targets and strike them with accuracy. Exercise PROUD MANTA 12 From Feb. 14-26, 2012, 11 NATO nations will provide five submarines, 15 aircraft (including shore and ship based helos) and 12 surface ships (including two auxiliary ships from Italy and one NATO research vessel) to take part in Proud Manta 12, NATO’s largest anti-submarine warfare exercise. The exercise will take place in the Ionian Sea to the southeast of Sicily. Forces are provided by Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The exercise goal is to demonstrate NATO’s determination to maintain proficiency and improve interoperability in coordinated anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, coastal surveillance and other maritime operations using a multinational force of ships, submarines and aircraft. Furthermore it will aim to provide operational training in potential NRF tasks/roles and missions as well as exercising the procedures for current or future operations. Exercise Cobra Gold 2012 One of the world’s largest multinational military exercises takes place in Thailand for this year's edition. An estimated 11,220 people, including 7,200 U.S. servicemembers, will participate in the 30th annual Cobra Gold exercise until Feb. 18. Servicemembers from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia will join hosts Thailand and the United States. While most of these exercises were long planned (some of them being yearly events), current global tensions cast light on them showing NATO and its allies take threats seriously and are currently training hard in order to be ready for whatever happens in the future. |