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Joint Military Exercise Showcases Capabilities Needed to Strike Iran's Nuclear Sites
(Al-Monitor) Jared Szuba - Last week, U.S. Air Force F-35s launched from the USS George H.W. Bush flew several hundred miles over the Mediterranean and linked up with Israeli F-35s to simulate a combined attack on surface-to-air missile batteries in the Negev desert. As they neared the target, accompanying F-16s and F-15s peeled away to attack ten aircraft posing as the defenders of imagined enemy airspace. The first wave successfully cleared the skies, enabling three nuclear-capable U.S. B-52 bombers that had taken off from the U.S. 16 hours prior to drop 100,000 pounds of live munitions on mock strategic targets. Buoyed by USAF KC-46 refueling tankers operating out of Israel's Nevatim Airbase, the long-range strikes marked a new apex for the U.S. and Israeli militaries, said Air Force Lt.-Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, deputy commander of CENTCOM. Many of the capabilities showcased last week were strikingly similar to those Israel would need to carry out long-range strikes on Iran's nuclear sites, former U.S. officials say. Dan Shapiro, the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Obama administration, said, "They're preparing for a new phase in dealing with Iran outside of the nuclear agreement....An exercise like this is deterrent, and hopefully it has a restraining effect on certain Iranian decisions." One former administration official said the Biden administration has long been sympathetic to Israel's clandestine actions against Iran, and even saw some Israeli operations as benefitting U.S. leverage when JCPOA talks were ongoing.