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Austere Challenge 2012

Austere Challenge 2012 is a bilateral air-defense exercise between the U.S. and Israel involving more than 3,500 U.S. personnel in Israel and Europe and approximately 1,000 Israel Defense Forces personnel in Israel. The exercise, which began Oct. 21 and will last approximately three weeks, has been in planning for more than two years as part of a long-standing agreement between U.S. European Command and the Israel Defense Force to hold bilateral training exercises on a regular basis.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, U.S. Third Air Force Commander, is the senior AC12 US commander in Israel for the exercise. Israel Defense Forces Brig Gen Nitzan Nuriel is the IDF's lead exercise planner for AC12. Together Oct. 17, they conducted a phone-in interview with more than 70 international journalists (transcript).

Austere Challenge 2012 Fact Sheet (.pdf, 128 KB)

10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command (.pdf, 484 KB)

More photos of exercise events are available here.

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October 25, 2012Austere Challenge 2012: Meeting and Working with our Israeli Public Affairs CounterpartsOur Combined Public Information Center team here includes EUCOM public affairs officers (PAO) and PAOs from the Joint PA Support Element from Norfolk, Va.

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November 14, 2012Exercise Austere Challenge 2012 concludes US European Command and the Israel Defense Forces successfully concluded Austere Challenge 2012 Tuesday, a large-scale air defense exercise that included both field training and command post simulations.
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