Naval forces from the US, Iraq and Kuwait will conduct their first trilateral exercise, in a bid to jointly address threats that exist in the Arabian Gulf.
The exercise will be conducted every quarter to replace two separate monthly US-Iraq and US-Kuwait bilateral exercises.
The trilateral exercise will witness the participation of personnel from the US Army, US Coast Guard and Kuwait Coast Guard.
Participating forces will take part in search-and-rescue exercises; nighttime joint patrol; visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) operations, fast attack craft and fast inshore attack craft defense, first-aid response, and maritime infrastructure protection.
The initial conference to plan the exercise was facilitated by Commander, Task Force (CTF) 55 at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on 13 July.
Representatives from the US, Kuwaiti and Iraqi forces participated in the conference to schedule training events and address any potential challenges that might take place during the trilateral.
CTF 55 commodore captain Andrew Arnold said: "We value greatly the role this exercise will play in building security interoperability, as well as for the enhancement of our collective capability to operate forward in the Arabian Gulf and promote regional political and economic stability.
"The trilateral exercise this August with our partners, Kuwait and Iraq, is a significant milestone because it is the first joint exercise since 2006 that simultaneously involves both countries.”
CTF 55 controls surface forces including US Navy coastal patrol craft and US Coast Guard patrols boats in the US 5th Fleet area of operations.
Image: The US participates in bilateral exercises with partner nations in order to build and strengthen solid partnerships. Photo: courtesy of US Navy Combat Camera photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Torrey W Lee/Released.
