U.S., Israeli forces to test missile defense while Iran simmers

STUTTGART, Germany — Some 1,000 U.S. European Command troops will soon deploy to Israel for a large-scale missile defense exercise with Israeli forces.

This year’s Juniper Cobra comes at a time of continued concern about Iran’s nuclear program, which will be the subject of talks in October. Iranian officials will meet with multiple nations, including the U.S., to negotiate the program, which many in the international community suspect is being developed for weapons.

The command denied that the training mission was directly linked to regional threats.

“This is not a response to the Iran threat,” said Lt. Cmdr. Taylor Clark, European Command spokesman.

The U.S. troops, from all four branches of service, will work alongside an equal number of Israel Defense Force personnel, taking part in computer-simulated war games intended to ensure the two countries can jointly respond to a crisis.

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