KUWAIT, July 10 -- Six weeks of rapid-reaction drills, involving about 15,000 U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine personnel, began Wednesday in the gulf. The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command's Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said the exercises, code-named Rugged Nautilus, would continue until Aug. 30.
All those involved were already deployed to the region and no personnel from gulf Arab countries are included. The Fifth Fleet said the drills are not related to any recent developments in the region and are 'designed to test U.S. Central Command's ability to rapidly gather and organize forces in the theater and establish a command and control element to execute air, ground and naval surface operations.' Among the ships involved are the USS Carl Vinson, the aircraft carrier on station in the gulf, the amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa and their escort groups. Among GIs involved are the Air Expeditionary Force based in Qatar, Air Force personnel from Bahrain and an Army intelligence group from Kuwait. The United States has conducted about 80 such exercises in the gulf region since the 1990-91 Gulf crisis and war with Iraq.
