Egypt’s ‘Bright Star 2021’ enables militaries to grow capabilities, respond to crisis situations: CENTCOM’s training director

CAIRO – 6 September 2021: Egypt’s multinational military exercise “Bright Star 2021” enables militaries to grow capabilities, and prepare to quickly respond to demanding crisis situations, a US Central Command official said.

Major General Steven J. deMilliano, director of exercises and training directorate at the United States Central Command, hailed the exercise as a vital professional development tool to test and validate concepts, procedures, and tactics, a statement by the US Embassy in Cairo read.

According to the statement, the exercise will examine the ability of each of the participating countries to cooperate to address regional challenges across air, land, sea and cyber fields.

“The exercise construct will consist of a field training exercise with a combined-arms live-fire exercise, command post exercise and a senior leader seminar to facilitate information sharing from the tactical to the strategic levels,” the statement added.

The US embassy said the exercise builds on the strategic security relations with Egypt, hailing these relations as of a “leading role in regional security and efforts to combat the spread of extremism.”

Around 600 US military personnel are participating in the exercise, according to the embassy.

The exercise, which was scheduled for 2020, was postponed to September 2021 due to coronavirus. It comes with the participation of 21 countries.

The exercise has started on 2 September and is set to extend until 17 September. It is taking place in the Mohamed Naguib base in the northern Matrouh governorate.

The military spokesman published an infographic on Sunday to explain the goals of the exercise and the countries involved, including the United States, the United Kingdom and France.

According to the spokesperson, Arab countries participating besides Egypt are Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.

The exercise also includes other African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania.

This is in addition to Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Greece and Pakistan.

The goals of the exercise, according to the spokesman, include training on atypical combat acts, developing joint work and getting to know the latest international combat systems.

Enhancing the strategic and security ties between the countries involved, exchanging expertise and developing the combat techniques among them are also part of the goals, according to the spokesman.

Egypt-US exercise

Egypt’s paratroopers and commandos concluded a joint training that involved the US troops with the aim of countering terrorism, according to a statement by the military spokesman last week.

The training took place in August, according to a picture published by the spokesman.

The drills, named “SOF03” and “SOF06,” lasted for several days.

The exercises were conducted within the framework of joint training programs carried out by the Egyptian Armed Forces with a number of sisterly and friendly states to exchange military expertise, the statement added.

The training showed the special performance of the forces and the firm cooperation and coordination to implement all tasks required with efficiency, the statement added.

According to an earlier statement by the spokesman, the US training director expressed his deep appreciation to the Egyptian Armed Forces for hosting the Bright Star 2021.

He also hailed the warm reception and hospitality, stressing that the United States considers Egypt one of the most important strategic partners in the region.

The leaders of the participating forces expressed their happiness with the high spirits of the participating forces from various countries, hoping that the Bright Star 2021 exercises would achieve their planned goals in a way that strengthens the relations of military cooperation between the armies of the participating countries.