Between 1998 and 2009 Turkish, US and Israeli navies conducted an annual naval exercise called Reliant Mermaid. This exercise is discontinued now in accordance with the deteriorating bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel in the last couple years.
Last year Greece has replaced Turkey and these there nations held to naval exercise Noble Dina 2011. While the Reliant Mermaid was marketed as a trilateral humanitarian search and rescue (SAR) exercise involving naval ships and aircraft of the participants according to Greek media the new military operation scenarios include exercises of repelling enemy attacks against offshore natural gas and oil rigs, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and prohibition of military aircraft operations.
And as an interesting coincidence this year exercise is aligned with the signing of tripartite energy agreement between Greece, Israel and Cyprus.
Greece will join the exercise with combat jets, at least one frigate and one submarine.
NOBLE DINA 2012 participations:
HN: MEKO-200HN class Frigate SALAMIS (F455), Type 209AIP submarine TRITON (S112), 4 F-16C/D Block52+, 343 SQ/Suda AB.
USN: Ticonderoga class missile cruiser VellaGulf (CG72), Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer The Sullivans (DDG68).
IN: 2 Sa’ar 5-class corvettes, one Dolphin class submarine.
where can i find pictires from this drill?
I have not seen any photos yet. But I am sure soon both Israeli and Greek websites will post photos how successful they were.