The third version of the eight-airforce Mixed Spears of Victory Air Maneuver 2023 started Sunday in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia.

The drill, carried out by the Royal Saudi Air Force, aims at enhancing the concept of joint work, alliance building among friendly countries, and upgrading level of performance and fighting preparedness.

In addition to the host country of Saudi Arabia, forces from each of Bahrain, Greece, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, UK and USA are taking part in the event. Observers from Kuwait, Oman and UAE are also present, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The first Spears of Victory drill, held in February 2021, was the first training exercise of its kind in the Kingdom under the command of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and resembled most as a smaller version of complex mission exercises as Red Flag (USA) and Anatolian Eagle in (Turkey), the Saudi Ministry of Defense (MoD) said then.

The purpose of this training, which lasted for 10 days, is to raise the combat efficiency of the participants, especially the RSAF, and to train on command and control missions for large combat formations with different missions simultaneously, the Ministry added.

The scenario contained a high number of offensive and defensive complex training flights with presence of electronic warfare and air defense systems supplemented with the presence of aggressor fighter aircraft to simulate enemies capabilities.

Spears of Victory 2022 was held in the recently opened Air Warfare Centre (AWC) at King Abdulaziz Air Base located on the Gulf coast in the Eastern Region with more than 300 km training area available in the direct neighborhood.

In December 2018, the US Air Force awarded a USD104 million contract to design and build the new facilities. The AWC consists of 31,400 m2 of new buildings including three new aircraft maintenance hangars and a squadron operations facility, as well as 167,000 m2 of new paving and 24 aircraft sunshades.