US, Israel launch week of major military exercises involving thousands of forces

The United States and Israel on Monday launched what one US official described as the allies' most-significant joint military exercise to date, involving thousands of forces, a dozen ships and 142 aircraft, including nuclear-capable bombers.

The "Juniper Oak" drills, which will run through Friday, are meant to demonstrate and deepen integration between the US and Israeli militaries, the senior US defence official said, and come at a time of growing tension over Iran's nuclear programme.

Although the drills will likely draw interest from Tehran, the US official said there would be no mockups of Iranian targets and that the exercises weren't oriented around any particular adversary.

"I do think that the scale of the exercise is relevant to a whole range of scenarios, and Iran may draw certain inferences from that," the official acknowledged.

"It's really meant mostly to kick the tires on our ability to do things at this scale with the Israelis against a whole range of different threats."

The exercises will include live-fire exercises and involve 6,400 US forces, many of which will be aboard the US aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush strike group. Some 450 troops will be on the ground in Israel, the official said.

Beyond B-52 bombers, the US aircraft will include F-35s, F-15s, F-16s and F-18s. Drills will take place over large distances, involving land, sea, air and space, the official said.

The planning for the exercises began only a couple of months ago, before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regained the top office on 29 December in charge of a far-right coalition government.

Israel has been a key opponent of US President Joe Biden's attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal.

But those negotiating efforts have been set aside for now while Washington pressures Iran to stop providing drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine and seeks to stop a crackdown on Iranian demonstrators.

The senior US official said America's commitment to Israel's security was "ironclad".

"We have Israeli governments of one flavour or the other. They come and go. But what doesn't change is our ironclad commitment to Israel's security," the official said.

"So this is a sign that we continue to have Israel's back at a time where there's a lot of turbulence and instability across the region."

The Iranian nuclear programme remains a concern.

"I think it's fair to say Iran's nuclear programme is more advanced now than it's ever been. Their breakout time lines are more compressed. Their knowledge and know-how has gone up," the official said.

"So the challenge has gone up."

The official said the drills would show how the United States could effectively surge large numbers of battle-ready forces into the Middle East, even as Washington focuses on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and intensifying competition with China.

"As our adversaries and competitors are sizing up the US military, I suspect they will take note of our ability to do this because, frankly, no other military on Earth could do this," the official said.

"Not while they're doing everything else that we're doing around the globe."

(Reuters)