London: 24 countries participated in the exercise, which included air, land and navy units in addition to air defense systems and special forces unit carrying out mock scenarios to attack and control huge areas of alleged enemy territory.
The aim of the maneuver was to ensure effective coordination between multi-national units from the 24 countries to maintain peace and security against modern adversaries — be it classic warfare or war operations against a non-state threat.
The exercise is considered one of the biggest in the region for the number of troops taking part in it. And is similar to operations like ‘Desert Storm’ in 1990-1991, and ‘Northern Thunder’ that took place in ‘Hafr Al Batin’ region in Saudi Arabia in 2016.
The Saudi Arabian-led exercise aimed to show the capability of Kingdom forces to plan and execute intricate military planing to manage seamless operation in various theaters of conflictusing the most developed communication and mapping technology to operate modern weapon systems.
Four of the participating armies are classified part of the ten most important armed forces in the world. The exercise demonstrated the 24 armed forces’ ability to liaise and operate in real time to attack missile launching sites, naval coastal control and protection, in addition to special forces’ lightning attacks, village door-to-door sweeps as well as clearing vital installations after an unconventional munitions attack.