Rabat: Units from Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and American forces took part on Friday in major air and ground military maneuvers at Cap Draa (north of Tan-Tan), marking the close of the combined Moroccan-American Exercise “African Lion 2025”.

According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, this exercise is part of the implementation of the High Instructions of His Majesty the King, Supreme Commander and Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR). During the maneuvers, attended by Lieutenant General Mohammed Berrid, Inspector General of the FAR and Commander of the South Zone, and General Michael Langley, Commander of the United States Africa Command (US AFRICOM), ground units, supported by air units, with F-16 aircraft from the Royal Air Force, simulated a counter-attack operation against a fictional enemy.

Similarly, Special Forces units proceeded to destroy an enemy radar station designed to detect drones, while an American HIMARS rocket launcher fired long-range shots at the simulated ene
my. Subsequently, FAR M109 artillery units carried out initial front-line destruction of the enemy, helping military engineering units to clear minefields and open corridors, as part of assault and counter-attack operations using Abrams tanks, accompanied by infantry units aboard heavy armored and light vehicles, with the aim of finishing off the remainder of the simulated enemy.

The operation included a combined logistical support exercise involving the evacuation of casualties from the battlefield using a Puma helicopter, as well as the evacuation and towing of vehicles for rehabilitation. Speaking at a press conference, General Langley said that both sides had demonstrated their combat, air-ground integration, firing and maneuver skills in this combined FAR/US Army exercise, adding that, thanks to intense coordination and planning, this 21st African Lion Exercise, attended by more than 52 countries, should ‘deepen our partnership with the FAR’.

The global operational and strategic environment is evolving
year on year, particularly in terms of technology, and threats continue to develop and emerge throughout the Sahel region, leading to an exacerbation of instability, he warned, adding that an exercise like ‘African Lion’ ‘will help us to plan and work with our African partners in sub-Saharan Africa on how to address it’.

For his part, Major Colonel Mohamed El Kaissi, the exercise’s Deputy Joint Force Commander, expressed gratitude to the Kingdom’s partners in AFRICOM and the U.S. Armed Forces Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) for their commitment, underlining that ‘close cooperation with our partners has led, as in previous editions, to the success of the 21st African Lion, planned and conducted in accordance with the High Instructions of His Majesty the King, Supreme Commander and Chief of General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces’.

As for Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Morocco Aimee Cutrona, she noted that ‘Morocco is one of our closest and oldest allies’. ‘Our relationship goes back t
o the founding of the United States’, she stressed, adding that today, on the occasion of the closing of ‘African Lion’, ‘we measure the depth and solidity of this relationship’.

The combined Moroccan-American exercise ‘African Lion 2025’, which began on May 12 at the Southern Zone Headquarters in Agadir, took place in several regions of the Kingdom, namely Cap Draa in Tan-Tan, Agadir, Tiznit, Kenitra, Ben Guerir and Tifnit. Over 10,000 members of the Armed Forces of several countries took part, alongside the Royal Armed Forces and their American counterparts, as well as NATO.

This 21st edition of the ‘African Lion 2025’ exercise included training in various operational fields, planning exercises for participating executives, and CBRN (nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical) decontamination, as well as joint maneuvers. This year’s event also featured parallel humanitarian and social activities, notably the installation of a military medical-surgical field hospital in Anzi (Tiznit province).

The Afr
ican Lion 2025 exercise aims to strengthen military cooperation between Morocco and the United States, develop interoperability and enhance intervention capabilities in a multinational context, with the aim of promoting security, peace and stability in the region.