A small, unmanned quadcopter drone — something available on the commercial market for a few hundred dollars — crashes near a village.
Green smoke streams from a canister affixed to the body of the drone. A yell shatters the morning air: “Gas!”
Five villagers collapse on the ground, gagging and writhing. It’s a sign of exposure to a chemical warfare agent that, left untreated, can asphyxiate its victims.
A multinational team of Egyptian, Qatari and Indian Soldiers arrives on the scene.
“Deploy the robot!” a Soldier shouts as a remote-controlled vehicle rolls up to investigate the drone wreckage. Qatari troops expert in identifying chemical, biological and radiological agents take samples from the scene. They suspect the gas is a nerve agent called VX.
In a quickly assembled mass casualty decontamination center, Egyptians and Indians wearing hazardous material suits scour victims clean of contaminants before ambulances rush them to a hospital.
A focus on teamwork across military organizations — units that in some cases had never worked together before — brought more than 8,600 multinational troops to Egypt to train at the Bright Star 25 military exercise.
Running August 28 to September 10, 2025, Bright Star focused on modern hybrid threats requiring land, sea and air forces to operate as partners to uphold regional security. Many of these threats are stealthy operations meant to bypass direct confrontation with superior forces, but Bright Star shaped its training scenarios for the demands of such contemporary warfare.
Fourteen nations supplied the training audience for Bright Star. In addition to large contingents from Egypt and the United States, training events engaged forces from Jordan, Kuwait, the Kyrgyz Republic, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Cyprus, Greece, India, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Thirty-four countries sent observers.
Lt. Gen. Ahmed Khalifa, chief of staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, praised Bright Star as one of the largest joint military exercises in the world. Since first holding Bright Star in 1980, Egypt and the U.S. have held the exercise 19 times.
“I would like to emphasize the importance of joint exercises, especially Bright Star, given the large number of participating countries and the exchange of expertise and knowledge they provide to all parties involved,”Lt. Gen. Khalifa said as he presided over preparations for the exercise.
“Such joint training enhances our future operations. I have previously participated in Bright Star exercises, and they have had a significant and lasting impact — benefits I continue to draw on to this day.”
A naval squadron of 10 ships from Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Greece and Italy — divided into three task forces — patrolled the coast of northern Egypt. In addition to traditional missions like gunnery practice, the task forces demonstrated detonating underwater mines, escorting amphibious forces to shore, delivering humanitarian relief and seizing boats at sea that harbored terrorists and smugglers.
This diversity represents a competitive advantage compared to exercises that focus on a single activity, making it an excellent platform for testing and developing integration across various military branches.” ~ Egyptian Brig. Gen. Garib Abdulhafez Garib
Multinational air squadrons flew together in formation, conducted precise aerial refueling operations, dispensed airborne troops and practiced airlifting casualties.
Infantry, armored and artillery troops shot down enemy drones and repulsed border incursions while, inside tents equipped with computer banks, cyber warriors defended command, control and communications systems from cyberattacks.
Special operations forces wearing the uniforms of many nations retook a terrorist-occupied village after parachuting rapidly to Earth.
“This diversity represents a competitive advantage compared to exercises that focus on a single activity, making it an excellent platform for testing and developing integration across various military branches,” said Egyptian Military Spokesman Brig. Gen. Garib Abdulhafez Garib.
“Bright Star provides a good opportunity to develop the capabilities of the American and Egyptian forces to carry out joint and bilateral missions that deal with all forms of regular and irregular threats.”
Shoulder-to-shoulder cooperation exemplified the specialized training that occurred at small outposts in the desert terrain of Mohamed Naguib Military Base in northern Egypt. Here troops learned to disarm improvised explosive devices, stabilize battlefield wounds, repel drones, clear border tunnels and hit targets with sniper rifles.
In a tent at midday, U.S. medics demonstrated lifesaving techniques to Kyrgyz and Egyptian troops, including stanching bleeding from battlefield wounds.
As he demonstrated applying tourniquets to slow blood streaming from a severed leg artery, Staff Sgt. Joshua Ames of the Tennessee U.S. Army National Guard highlighted the need for speed despite the mayhem of battle.
“This stops the bleeding,” Staff Sgt. Ames said as he secured a tourniquet. “But if I keep it on two, three or four hours, he may not keep his leg.”
The Kyrgyz Republic — the only nation from Central Asia to attend the U.S.-Egyptian exercise — sent 14 medical troops.
“Training with U.S., Egyptian and Middle Eastern troops gives us experience in organizing medical support on the battlefield,” said Lt. Col. Ismailov Ulukbek, chief of the Military Medical Department, Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense. “We are currently preparing a military field hospital for deployment to a peacekeeping operation, and the experience gained at Bright Star will definitely benefit us.”
Special operations forces received cutting-edge training at Bright Star, from rescuing hostages in lightning raids to shooting down unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with missiles. Special operations forces also coordinated a demonstration jump over the pyramids of Giza. They were some of nearly 90 troops making the airdrop. Many unfurled their national flags as they descended by parachute to the famous monuments.
Lt. Col. Waleed Abu Alghanam, lead officer for the 50 Jordanian special operations forces troops at Bright Star, highlighted the chance to train with partners like the U.S.
“Partnership with the United States helps Jordanian Special Forces develop tools to deal with modern threats such as cyberwarfare, drone attacks and asymmetric operations. This adaptation is essential in a rapidly changing and unpredictable security environment,” Lt. Col. Alghanam said.
One of the largest groups of trainees came from the Indian Armed Forces, which sent about 600 troops, including 137 from the Army, 137 from the Air Force, 302 from the Navy and 23 from the Integrated Headquarters of the Ministry of Defence. Indian troops appeared at nearly every event at Bright Star, including intricate aerial maneuvers with U.S. and Egyptian fighter jets.
The Indian contingent operated under the concept of Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, which means “the whole world is a family,” said Indian Army Col. Karan Khurana, commander of Indian forces at the exercise.
in the desert of Mohamed Naguib Military Base. SPC. CYNTHIA GOMEZ BELTRAN/U.S. ARMY
“Bright Star is the largest and oldest multilateral exercise in the Middle East and North Africa region, which provides an excellent platform for integration and peer learning to all participants,” Col. Khurana said. “Achieving interoperability with partner nations, developing joint capabilities and ensuring seamless coordination with our partner nations are the reasons that the Indian Armed Forces are enthusiastically participating in Bright Star 2025.”
Indians were among the 96 participants at the Bright Star Forum, along with Egyptians, Qataris, Saudis and Americans. It was a five-day symposium that discussed prominent security issues such as artificial intelligence, drones, cybersecurity, humanitarian aid/disaster response and international humanitarian law.
Although much of Bright Star’s field training focused on countering enemy drones, forum participants raised the equally important issue of equipping friendly forces with the same technology.
“Utilizing UAVs and drones is better not only for personnel but also financially. Drones give us, as leaders, options,” one officer said.
Regarding Bright Star as a whole — 14 nations contributed forces to land, sea and air components — commanders like Lt. Gen. Patrick Frank, commander of U.S. Army Central Command, were enthusiastic about the display of skill and teamwork.
“These soldiers and all of these staff officers will go back to their own armies and take back a better set of skills based on coming to Bright Star and being part of this great exercise we have every two years,” Lt. Gen. Frank said.