RIYADH: The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) concluded a mixed air exercise with their US and Pakistani counterparts at the Mushaf air base in Pakistan's Punjab province, the Kingdom’s defense ministry said on Thursday.
The “Aces Meet 2021” maneuvers concluded in the presence of Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Maliki, the military attaché Maj. Gen. Awad bin Abdullah Al-Zahrani, and the commander of the Mushaf air base, Wing Commander Ali Naeem Zahoor.
Al-Maliki said that this joint cooperation between the two countries enhances the strength of the relationship between the Kingdom and Pakistan, especially in the military field. He added that it also enhances the Kingdom’s participation in these exercises and RSAF’s efficiency with high accuracy and skill.
Al-Zahrani said the exercises aim to strengthen and support the bonds of cooperation between RSAF and the Pakistani Air Force and to train in environments different to that of the Kingdom’s.
Lt. Col. Fayeh bin Abdulrahman Al-Roqi, commander of the RSAF group participating in the exercise, stressed the importance of the experiences that the participants gain from such activity, which rely on simulating environments of real wars.
He added that the Aces Meet  is one of the most important exercises in which operational strategies and tactics are developed to simulate the realities of the battlefield in order to adapt to different combat situations.
He said that the performance results of the participating forces in all stages of the exercise were very high, and they displayed high energy, honorable combat performance and a high degree of competence and skill.
RSAF participated with a number of Tornado combat aircraft, with all its air, technical and support crews, with the aim of exchanging experiences in the field of planning, combat and support air operations, and raising the combat readiness.