Breaking Defense
BEIRUT — The US and Gulf Cooperation Council countries today announced a new iteration of defense working groups to be based in Saudi Arabia to “advance US-GCC cooperation and multilateral [missile] integration against shared air and maritime threats,” according to a senior US defense official.
The move comes weeks after Israel, the US and other nations intercepted most of the 300 missiles and drones Iran fired toward Israel on April 13 in what the official called a “proof of concept of integrated air and missile defense.” No GCC nations are known to have taken a direct part in the defensive operation, but the incident was “ultimately successful in sparking deeper cooperation among our partners,” the official told reporters this week, on the condition of anonymity, ahead of today’s announcement.
