All photos courtesy of QNA on Instagram

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and an official delegation from Qatar traveled to Saudi Arabia yesterday to watch the final moments of a massive military exercise that included 20 nations.

Operation Raad al-Shamal (Northern Thunder) was described as the largest ever such exercise to take place in the region and included 350,000 soldiers from Qatar, the UAE, Oman and other nations.

The exercises included land, air and naval defense teams.

The nearly three-week long operation, thought to be a show of strength to Saudi’s rivals including Iran, closed yesterday with a military parade at King Khalid Military City in the northern region of the country.

The ending also included fighter jets streaking across the sky and releasing orange flares, artillery shells whistling through the air and heavy machine gun fire, the Peninsula reports.

Find more about the exercise on the operation’s official account here.