U.S-Israel conduct Largest Military Drill to date

It will simulate several scenarios which range from dealing with the Syrian crisis, to military engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran in addition to the strategic threat of the Lebanese Resistance movement Hezbollah.


This US-Israeli exercise, which was supposed to be carried out last Spring, will test the response of several air defense systems against incoming missiles. These systems include the "Arrow," which is mainly designed to intercept Iranian missiles; the Iron Dome, which is designed to intercept shorter-range rockets that might be launched by the Lebanese and Palestinian Resistance movements; as well as the Patriot air defense batteries and the Aegis ballistic missile defense ship. Due to its importance, analysts saw that the postponement of such exercise was highly unusual.

In parallel to the U.S-Israeli AC-12 exercise the Russian Federation also held military exercises in several areas in Northern Russia which were not exclusive to the conventional weapons' displays but rose to simulate a nuclear scenario.

Several weeks prior to the AC-12 exercise the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah flew an Iranian-made drone, "Ayoub", for three hours and hundreds of kilometers across Israeli airspace evading Israel's most sophisticated military systems and U.S-made radars. According to the Sunday times, "Ayoub" was able to take images of delicate military bases and grounds on which AC-12 is currently taking place on.

Israel's failure to swiftly down "Ayoub" was seen as a hard blow to the reputation of the Israeli "Iron Dome" myth. Thus not only do experts believe that a heavy psychological defeat was imposed on the Israelis accordingly but also that the AC-12 exercise was brought to failure even before it had been launched.