Amman, Jordan While headlines trickle out of the neighboring civil war in Syria, the US and Jordan kicked off a wide-ranging multi-national military exercise Sunday, touting wide participation of many Arab and allied militaries as a show of stability in the Middle East. Exercise Eager Lion 2013, the third iteration of the exercise, is the largest of the efforts yet with a total of some 8,000 personnel participating from 19 countries, including about 5,000 troops from all four US military services, states a Pentagon release. The exercise, held June 9-20 at locations across Jordan, challenges all participants to respond to “realistic, modern day security scenarios by integrating a variety of disciplines in the air, on land and at sea,” and will serve to enhance regional stability, said Army Maj. Gen. Robert Catalanotti, US Central Command’s director of exercises and training, during a joint press conference in the Amman suburb of Zarqa. The Colorado Air National Guard’s 140th Wing has dispatched F-16s, which will participate in a range of training scenarios, such as air-to-air exercises, air defense drills and joint air-to-ground live weapons training with their fellow F-16 pilots and crews in the Royal Jordanian Air Force. Click here to continue to full report.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.