Eager Lion

Eager Lion is a two-week multinational military exercise held annually in Jordan since 2010. Organized by the U.S. Department of Defense,^[1] the exercise revolves around troop deployments, chemical warfare, border security, command and control, cyber defense and battlespace management.^[2] According to one source, the exercise "amounts to an outgrowth of the annual bilateral 'Infinite Moonlight' U.S.–Jordan exercise that stretches back to the 1990s."^[3]

Eighteen countries participated in the exercise in 2015: Jordan, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Pakistan, the United States, Canada, Belgium, Poland, Australia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen.^[4] Eager Lion is now the largest U.S. military exercise in the Middle East, having surpassed Bright Star.^[5]