Basic Liaison Drill 2012 (BLD 2012) is currently carried out by Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) and represented by the Bahraini Royal Air Force (BRAF) and continuing until April 18, enjoys a wide participation of sisterly and friendly States, who have expressed their interest and eagerness to make of this drill successful.
The drill comes within the BRAF’s training plans in the implementation of joint exercises with sisterly and friendly air force units within the framework of mutual defense cooperation and coordination agreements among the participating States for maintaining security, stability and safety of the Arab Gulf region.
Participants expressed their admirations of the importance of the drill, which enhances mutual cooperation, exchange expertise, raising the efficiency of pilots, technician and supportive units.
Saudi Lieutenant-Colonel pilot Faisal Al-Ghamdi expressed the Saudi leadership’s keenness to support such exercise, which is conducted by the sisterly Gulf Kingdom of Bahrain, and he emphasized the need to unifying air operation terminologies through holding this kind of exercises with various countries, which use the most sophisticated and advanced war planes.
Emirates Lieutenant-Colonel pilot Mohammed Saeed Al-Muhairi praised the organizational level of this event and stressed the importance of the drill in standardizing the air and defense operational concepts through the implementation of mutual cooperative exercises with sisterly and friendly air forces of most advanced aircrafts and defensive air weapons.
Kuwaiti Major Pilot Waleed Al-Autaibi affirmed his government’s keenness to participate in the drill and appreciated the Bahraini invitation and fine hospitality.
Jordanian Brigadier Pilot Mustaffa Raja Al-Mukdad, Lieutenant-Colonel pilot Munther Al-Dweri and Lieutenant-Colonel Pilot Mohammed Fathi Husayiat commended the fraternal and cooperative relations in the aviation field between both kingdoms, and added that the Jordanian participation aims at the acquisition of new skills and exchanging expertise with Kingdom of Bahrain.
Egyptian observer Colonel Pilot Mohammed Mukhtar lauded the successful drill and praised the high quality F-16 Bahraini pilots, he hoped that his government would take part in future drills.
Pakistani observer Colonel Ahmed Sulahri said that he was honoured to attend this event and he witnessed the Bahraini pilots carrying out the exercises professionally.
US Colonel Robert Martin stated that the USA has been a constant participant since 1988, and on behalf of the Commander of the US Central Command in the Middle East, he thanked the BRAF Command to invite his team to participate in this important drill. He added that this is a new opportunity for the USA to exchange expertise and build new friendly relations with various countries.