military exercise

plural military exercises

1. A large-scale activity involving military forces from multiple countries or commands, designed to demonstrate the level of alliance between those forces and their ability to coordinate, as a signal to potential military adversaries.

   In early November the United States and its NATO allies carried out an unusually extensive and high-level military exercise, called Able Archer 83, testing the command and communications procedures for the release and use of nuclear weapons in case of war.

   1994, Raymond L. Garthoff, The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War, page 138

   2 more examples

   Another major military exercise, codenamed Operation Intrinsic Action held in August 1992, involved the participation of 2400 US troops from the First Cavalry Division at Ford Hood, Texas and members of the Fifth Special Forces Group from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

   2005, Chookiat Panaspornprasit, US-Kuwaiti Relations, 1961-1992: An Uneasy Relationship, page 136

   In the first months of 1993 the situation worsened as the United States and South Korea resumed their annual Team Spirit military exercise (canceled in 1992) and North Korea announced its intention to withdraw from the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

   1997, David R. McCann, Korea Briefing: Toward Reunification, page 34

   Synonyms: training exercise, war game