The Israeli military hosted U.S. Marines this week for an urban warfare drill in a mock-up of a generic Middle East village, sharing know-how and signaling the allies; shared interests as their leaders close ranks on a host of regional issues.
Some 2,500 Israeli soldiers and 2,000 American troops have been training together in Israel for the past two weeks as part of Juniper Cobra 2018, the flagship joint training exercise that has taken place every two years since 2001 and adjusts each time to cope with the shifting battlefield.
"We are willing to work and train together, and if God wills it, if we ever need to be side by side, then we will," Lt. Col. Marcus Mainz of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit said Tuesday.
His troops joined Israeli special forces regiments to practice battle formations, helicopter deployment and medical evacuations in a mock-up village in the desert, complete with Arabic graffiti and a fake mosque.
Mainz said his troops had learned from the Israelis' experiences in fighting Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip and had, in turn, shared tips from U.S. war fronts.
"They teach them what to see when they were either in the Gaza Strip or somewhere else on the battlefield, for us in Afghanistan and Iraq, and teach that young soldier what to look for, and what happens is they start getting excited and they are talking about 'I learned this here,' 'I learned that there,'" Mainz said.
The two-week exercise, which this year focuses primarily on countering missile threats, was launched on March 4 and includes a scenario of massive missile attacks on Israel from multiple fronts, namely the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and Iran. The drill involves field training and computer simulations. It is expected to culminate with a live-fire drill involving sophisticated missile defense systems such as Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow 2 and Arrow 3, and Patriot interceptors.
