Efes-2018 Combined Joint Military Exercise, one of the most comprehensive drills of the Turkish Armed Forces, took place on 7-11 May.
Organized with the participation of hundreds of combat vehicles and 7,500 personnel, the military exercise was overseen by the Aegean Army Command. Targets were completely destroyed using live fire, air force craft, attack helicopters, anti-tank weapons and other land and sea fire support vehicles.
The military exercises’ purposes were to develop the combined military and combat capabilities of the joint command and units formed by armies of the participating countries in a unified operation so as to cover all aspects of combat in preparation for an actual war.
Military units from the US, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, the UK, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria, Georgia, Italy, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Hungary, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Romania, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan participated in the drill. The military vessels TCG Bayraktar and TCG Büyükada, air defense weapon system KORKUT, laser-guided missile CIRIT, long-range laser guided missile L-UMPAS, the modern infantry rifle MPT-76 were employed for the first time in Efes-2018 Combined Actual Combat Exercise. Three Bayraktar TB2 Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle served for the first time in a drill CH-47F Chinook helicopters, which entered the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces in 2016 and dubbed “flying fortresses”, were also used for the first time in Efes-2018.
