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EAGER LION 18 ~ US Marines In Jordan

Over the last week a Battalion Landing Team from 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit USMC has been deployed on manoeuvres in Jordan on Exercise EAGER LION 18.

 

After landing at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, at the northern end of the Red Sea, the US Marines from BLT 2/6 moved 50km inland to the Al Quwayrah ranges for a live fire package alongside Jordanian Armed Forces. These vast training ranges are well known to UK Forces who have deployed on past SHAMAL STORM exercises.

Firing an M98A2 Javelin weapons system on Al Quwayrah Ranges during EAGER LION , April 21st [USMC: Cpl Austin Livingston]

EAGER LION is billed as a capstone training engagement that provides US forces and the Jordan Armed Forces an opportunity to rehearse operating in a coalition environment and to pursue new ways to collectively address threats to regional security and improve overall maritime security. BLT2/6, i.e. Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, is a primary component of 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

In addition to the FTX (Field Training Exercise) at AQ Ranges, some of BLT2/6 also deployed further north to KASOTC (King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center) for NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Operation) embassy reinforcement training and  live firing packages at the centre’s small arms ranges and urban complexes.

 

US Marines from the Maritime Raid Force, 26 MEU, brace while breaching an entrance into the Method Of Entry building at KASOTC [USMC: Cpl Jered T Stone]

USMC corporal firing a 77th Royal Jordanian Marine Battalion M137A1 105mm Howitzer, Al Quwayrah, April 23rd [USMC: Cpl Santino D Martinez]

US Marines assigned to BLT 2/6) keep a simulated civilian protest at a safe distance for the arrival of Marines at KASOTC for a NEO, April 20th [USMC: LCpl Tojyea G Matally]

US Marine from 26 MEU Maritime Raid Force fires an M4A1 carbine rifle on a 25-metre range at KASOTC, April 20th [USMC: Cpl Jered T Stone]

 

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