Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) are expanding military cooperation with international partners, with preparations underway for African Lion 2027, the largest multinational military exercise in Africa, and an ongoing bilateral naval exercise with France. The Southern Zone Command headquarters in Agadir is hosting the first planning meeting for African Lion 2027 from September 21 to 25, bringing together representatives from Morocco, the United States and other participating countries to coordinate training objectives and plan operational and logistical concepts across land, air, maritime and special-forces domains.
The exercise is scheduled to run from April 25 to May 7, 2027, across Agadir, Tan-Tan, Guelmim, Benguerir, Kénitra and Dakhla. The 2027 edition follows a July 2026 memorandum of understanding between the FAR and the US Africa Command (Africom) establishing the African Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center, described by Africom as a testbed for emerging wireless and sensing technologies that will let industrial partners’ trial of AI systems, autonomous platforms and advanced communications tools in operational settings.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, addressing a ceremony held via videoconference at the Agadir headquarters for African Lion’s 22nd edition earlier this year, thanked Morocco for its ‘exceptional and constant commitment’ as host nation, saying the exercise ‘improves interoperability’ and helps address evolving security threats through joint innovation in artificial intelligence, robotics and next-generation digital technologies.
In another development, Moroccan and French sailors are continuing the Chebec 26 naval cooperation exercise at Toulon, which began September 14 with simulator training, firefighting drills and exercises addressing onboard flooding, before moving into an at-sea phase involving French and Moroccan frigates and their embarked helicopters. A Royal Moroccan Navy Panther helicopter also trained alongside its French counterpart squadron at the Hyères naval air base. This year’s edition expanded the exercise’s scope to include a cybersecurity component.
Moroccan officials describe the continuing cooperation with both the United States and France as part of a broader strategy of strengthening interoperability with partner militaries across land, sea, air, special forces and humanitarian operations, reinforcing Morocco’s role as a security partner in the region.
