Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, hosted Israel’s Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi during a visit to Bahrain, March 10. Kohavi was joined by Major Gen. Tal Kelman, director for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) J5 directorate; Brig. Gen. Efraim Defrin, deputy director for IDF’s J5 directorate; and Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, head of the IDF Research and Assessment Department.
The leaders discussed future opportunities for maritime security cooperation between IDF and U.S. 5th Fleet. The U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations encompasses approximately 2.5 million square miles of water area and includes the Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea, parts of the Indian Ocean, and three critical choke points at the Strait of Hormuz, Suez Canal, and Strait of Bab al-Mandeb.
