The United Arab Emirates’ Joint Aviation Command concluded five-day-long joint exercises in the Arabian Gulf with U.S. forces, the U.S. Marines said on Wednesday.
The naval and air training operations were conducted from June 21 to June 25 and centered on the U.S. Navy’s USS Lewis B. Puller, an expeditionary mobile base vessel.
The USS Puller is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, supporting naval operations, naval maritime stability and security in a region connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Pacific Ocean through the Western Indian Ocean.
Its area of responsibility includes three critical choke points in and around the Arabian Gulf.
Chokepoints are narrow channels along widely used global sea routes, and they are critical to global energy security.
Commenting on the joint drills, US Naval Forces Central Command/C5F (US 5th Fleet) on its official twitter account said: “#UnitedArabEmirate Joint Aviation Command (JAC) conducted combined naval & air training operations with @US5thFleet & @USAFCENT forces in the Arabian Gulf.”
These forces are assigned to US Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and US Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) in the southern Arabian Sea.
