North Thunder (or in Arabic: رعد الشمال Raʿad aš-Šamāl / Raad al-Shamal) was a joint military exercise held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the participation of 20 Arab and Islamic countries; notably the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, Chad, Maldives, Comoros, Tunisia, Oman, Malaysia and Yemen in February–March 2016.

[1][2] The exercise aimed to raise the technical and combat efficiency of the units involved and improve logistics and readiness rates for the implementation of joint security and stability missions in the region, notably Syria.

[3] A spokesman for the Arab coalition forces, Ahmad Assiri, said the aim of the exercise is to achieve the highest level of preparedness, exchange expertise and promote coordination among the 21 participating countries.

[7] According to unofficial sources, around 350,000 soldiers, 2,540 warplanes, 20,000 tanks, and 460 helicopters will participate in the largest military exercise in the history of the region.

[4][8][9] Jane's Defence Weekly noted that based on official media releases the exercise appeared smaller than Bright Star 2000, which was held in Egypt in 1999 and involved around 73,000 troops from 11 countries.