US, Saudi forces carry out joint air exercise to counter drones

WORLD, Sept. 15 (YPA) – The US Central Command said on Thursday that its forces and Saudi forces carried out a joint air exercise in northern Saudi Arabia to counter drones.

The Central Command added in a statement published on its Arabic-language account on the X platform, that the exercise “Red Sands 2” highlighted the progress made by the two countries towards defeating the drones, which pose a threat by adversaries.

It added that the commander of the US Central Command, General May Corella, and the head of the Saudi General Staff, General Fayyad Al-Ruwaili, followed the progress of the exercise, which was conducted on Wednesday by the Integrated Test Center.

The Central Command explained that this exercise is the culmination of months of rapid prototyping innovation and continuous development based on what was achieved in the previous exercise.

It also said that the new exercise included repeated testing of 9 systems that use different kinetic and non-kinetic technologies to destroy or disable drone systems.

The US statement said that the commanders of the US Army’s “Central Task Force 39” led the live-fire training phase within the “Red Sands 2” exercise, and said that this division – in partnership with its Saudi counterparts – worked with military and commercial innovators to test the promising capabilities aimed at countering unmanned aircraft systems.

E.M