Special to WorldTribune.com

AMMAN — Jordan has hosted a major exercise that stressed border security.

Jordan and the United States have organized Eager Lion-2014 to focus on border security. Organizers said the Hashemite kingdom provided nine separate areas for Eager Lion, in which 20 militaries were participating.

“The Eager Lion operation is based on training objectives that made
operational requirements and sponsor changes in the concept of modern
warfare,” Jordanian Army Brig. Gen. Fahd Damen, director of military
training, said. “It reinforces the new roles of the armies and their
unconventional wars.”

Eager Lion, which took place from May 25 to June 10, included the use of
infantry, armored units and fighter-jets to secure or recapture border
areas. In one drill near the southern resort of Petra, F-16 multi-role
fighters and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters provided cover for M1A2
Abrams main battle tanks that stormed a mock border area captured by enemy
forces.

The drill at Petra included Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United
States. At one point, the troops donned gas masks and vests to fight during
a mock chemical weapons attack.

“We have been concentrating on intensive training on electronic
counter-terrorism and cyber attacks that characterize the first stages of
future war,” Damen said.

About 12,000 troops participated in Eager Lion. Most of the drills have
taken place in central and southern Jordan, hundreds of kilometers from
Syria, where a war has been raging.

“This exercise is based on coming together unified with a
military-to-military relationship,” Maj. Gen. Robert Catalanotti, exercise
director at U.S. Central Command said. “We are not involved in training
Syrian rebels within this program, and this was not part of our exercise.”

Catalanotti said the Petra exercise tested interoperability between
infantry, armored units and aircraft. He said the maneuvers were analyzed by
staffers at headquarters near Zarqa.

In Jordan’s southern port of Aqaba, Eager Lion directed a special
operations maneuver. The maneuver was based on a scenario in which Al
Qaida-aligned fighters captured a vessel and took hostages.

“We tested the abilities of the infantry, aviation and mechanized tanks
in the Jordanian desert before launching a special operation in Aqaba, while
on the outskirts of Zarqa we have been running special operations and staff
analysis with 12,000 coordination forces,” Catalanotti said.

The United States brought more than 6,000 troops for Eager Lion.
Officers said 1,500 U.S. soldiers were serving in Jordan on a permanent
basis.

“They [troops brought for Eager Lion] will all retrograde out after June
9,” Catalanotti said.

  Brig. Gen. Fahd Damen, Eager Lion 2014, Exercise in Jordan with U.S., Maj. Gen. Robert Catalanotti, Saudis, Turkey focuses on ‘unconventional wars’