Israeli Navy wraps up five-day drill with US Navy’s 5th Fleet in Mediterranean

By Emanuel Fabian

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11 December 2025, 6:02 pm

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Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent

Israeli Navy and US 5th Fleet sailors are seen aboard a vessel during a drill in early December 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

The IDF says it has wrapped up a five-day-long bilateral drill between the Israeli Navy and the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The drill, dubbed Intrinsic Defender, was held in the Mediterranean Sea — including at the Haifa Bay and off the coast of Nahariya — and in the Red Sea, according to the military.

The IDF says the exercise was intended to “strengthen and maintain the longstanding cooperation between the two navies, expand and improve the response to maritime threat scenarios, and conduct mutual operational learning.”