The Eager Lion exercise doesn’t have the long history of Cobra Gold or Team Spirit, nor does it have the immense scale of RIMPAC. But is still important, particularly with the Syrian Civil War raging – not to mention having to deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
According to a CENTCOM release, 21 countries, including the United States, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, and Poland are invading Jordan for the Eager Lion 2017 exercise.
“As brothers in arms, we fully understand how much our nations have paid in blood and treasure over the years to address security, particularly in this region,” Maj. Gen. William B. Hickman, deputy commanding general of operations for U.S. Central Command, told reporters at a press event launching the exercise. “For much of the past two decades our militaries have operated in the grey zones of military confrontation … where misunderstanding and miscalculation can easily escalate into a larger conflict.”
Here are some photos showing just what is going on with this friendly multi-national invasion:
1. They travel there by sea and air
It is said that half the fun is getting there. It’s a safe bet that the CO of USS Bataan (LHD 5) got tired of hearing 2,000 Marines ask, “Are we there yet?”
2. The gear gets set up
Exercises like Eager Lion are not thrown together on a whim. Support troops like these help make the multi-national wargame run smoothly.
3. They prepare for the worst
This includes being sure that the medevac people are fully spun up in case there is an accident during the training. Hopefully, they are very, very bored during Eager Lion 2017.
4. They hit the ground running
Fast-roping from helicopters helps to secure the LZ.
5. They move out to their objectives
Now that their way out has been secured, the troops are off to happily go about the day’s work of dropping tangos.
6. They achieve the objective…
…Which is for the last thing the bad guy sees to be something like this:
