Jerusalem, 2 August, 2022 (TPS) — The Israeli and the US navies launched a four-day maritime exercise in the Red Sea on Monday, the latest in a series of shared exercises between the two militaries in recent months.
The INS Sa’ar 5 “Eilat” and the INS Sa’ar 4.5 “Keshet” are participating in a variety of missions alongside 5th Fleet ships USS Nitze (DDG 94), USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3), and USNS Matthew Perry (T-AKE 9).
The US Navy stated that the exercise is a bilateral training event between US 5th Fleet and Israeli naval forces that is focused on “mission planning, maritime interdiction and other drills at sea.”
The US 5th Fleet is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain, and includes maritime forces operating in the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean, and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, and Bab al-Mandeb.
The IDF was transferred to the US Central Command (CENTCOM) from EUCOM in January 2021 after the signing of the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain. Since its transfer, the IDF has held several drills with US forces stationed in the Middle East.
For instance, in November 2021, the IDF Ground Forces and US Marine Corps Forces Central Command (MARCENT) troops completed a two-week-long multi-force training exercise conducted in Israel.
The US Marines trained alongside IDF troops with an emphasis on open and urban field combat. The exercise included 500 US Marines staging a beach-storming drill in Eilat.