Bright Star 99 press conference

In the presence of the chief of the Egyptian armed forces training authority and heads of the participating Arab and foreign states, a press conference was held on October 16, 1999, in the military media center in Cairo.

The subjects of training, the stages of the maneuvers and the ways of media covering were all reviewed in the press conference.

The number of participating countries reached around eleven, with forces including 73,000 soldiers -- 4,300 of them Egyptians -- 300 aircraft, and 58 warships. This is in addition to a number of military observers from 33 countries.

Historical Background

1. Bright Star combined exercises have been conducted in odd years. They started out in 1981 with a participation of limited forced from Egypt and the U.S.A.

2. The size of participating forces from the two countries increased graually in the years 1985, 87, 89, and 93.

3. Realizing the gravity of these exercises, the Egyptian pilots' role in the region and the importance of multi-national military cooperation, France, the UK and the UAE joined Bright Star maneuvers in 1995.

4. In 1997 Kuwait took part in Bright Star.

5. As a result of the outstanding quality of combined training Bright Star offers, many other countries rushed to join BS 99/00 such as Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Jordan. Thus, with 11 countries sending their troops for this training Bright 99/00 has become the largest combined exercise in the world.