Exercise African Lion 2011 features extensive upgrades, highlights strength of U.S.-Moroccan relationship 

By air and by sea, the U.S. Marines, Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen are landing in Agadir. The service members are here to participate in Exercise African Lion 2011 and train side-by-side with their Moroccan counterparts, the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.

The U.S. troops arrive here and immediately begin the voyage to Tan-Tan, the small desert town in southern Morocco where the majority of the exercise will take place. The annual arrival of Americans has become a familiar site to the Moroccans as African Lion is in its 8th year. The exercise grows larger ever year. More than two years of planning went into this year’s exercise, and it promises to be the largest, most multifaceted African Lion ever.

“The Moroccans asked us to make the exercise bigger, more complicated and more difficult,” said Marine Maj. Keith Nunn, the lead planner and lead of the exercise coordination cell with Marine Forces Africa. “This really highlights the strong military relationship we have with Morocco. They wanted us to crank it up a little and we are. We have increased the size almost two-fold and have exponentially increased the complexity.”

African Lion 2011 includes many firsts. In order to fulfill the Moroccan request to increase the exercise’s size, Marine Forces Africa requested the Deployable Joint Command and Control Systems, DJC2 CORE Package, and the capabilities of Joint Logistics Over-The-Shore, JLOTS. These new elements have allowed the exercise to include twice as many tanks as last year, M777 howitzer artillery pieces, and the inclusion of JLOTS enablers such as the U.S. Army tugboat Winfield Scott, the USNS Bobo, USNS Pililaau and the HSV-2 Swift, as well as F-15 Eagle fighter jets. In order to ensure all the different elements of this year’s enlarged exercise have constant access to communications, the DJC2 was an essential addition.

“There’s no better way to conduct forward planning or command and control than the DJC2,” said Nunn. “The members of the DJC2 benefit tremendously from their experiences here, and it’s important to have their readiness continually tested.”

Army Capt. Thomas J. Goodall, Africa Command detachment commander, C Troop, 5th Joint Communications Squadron, Joint Communications Support Element, also stressed the importance of his unit’s readiness. He said no matter what the conditions are on the ground, his detachment has to have the capability to deploy anywhere on the continent of Africa. The members of the DJC2 are already proving their capabilities here. Despite the heavy rains that greeted their arrival, the joint communications support element’s team successfully became operational in less than 48 hours of arriving in Agadir.

“We weren’t going to wait for the storm to pass,” said Goodall. “We got support from other exercise participants, and we got our tents up. Our quick set up really speaks to the work ethic and focus on the mission that we came here with.” “We are ready at a moment’s notice to go from this exercise to a real world mission,” added Goodall. “Our joint team is the perfect support element for this exercise.”

The 16 member detachment, based in Vicenza, Italy, has counterparts all over the globe, including two who have recently been deployed to respond to the real world crises in Haiti and Japan. The DJC2 provides e-mail, Defense Switch Network phone and secure video and telephone conference capabilities.

“Having the DJC2 here is a huge improvement for our tactical communication operations,” said Marine Sgt. Ryan Kish, radio chief with Marine Forces Africa, who is serving in his third African Lion exercise. “We can now keep constant [communication] with each forward unit, and have the ability to support a full [Joint Task Force].”

The DJC2’s ability to communicate has already proven essential as the exercise planners have been forced to contend with harsh weather conditions on the Atlantic Ocean. The JLOTS team has been forced to reroute from delivering their equipment from Tan-Tan to Agadir. The JLOTS operation is what has allowed African Lion 2011 to increase in size and scope so dramatically. The U.S. Transportation Command and Africa Command’s planners worked together in order to ensure JLOTS support and fulfill the Moroccan request that this year’s exercise be improved. The introduction of the U.S. ships has already enabled more interoperability with the Moroccan frigate Mohammed V providing security for the U.S. ships.

“We normally have our troops arrive here on a commercially chartered aircraft,” said Nunn. “Introducing Bobo and Pililaau now allows us a great opportunity to get more troops trained. The additional piece of having the Mohammed V provides security for our ships is huge in building interoperability between our militaries.”

The assimilation of TRANSCOM and AFRICOM makes the exercise even more diverse, and the Moroccans will be able to be exposed to the full spectrum of the U.S. military.

“We are working with all four services for the first time this year,” said Kish. “It’s a really good opportunity to learn each other’s systems and different ways of operating in a field environment. My first year here, we were in a much more difficult situation with communication. I was responsible for developing the entire communication system myself in one day.”

The exercise’s main goals are to create interoperability between the U.S. and Moroccan militaries and to further develop the relationship between the U.S. and Moroccan governments. The primary goal of African Lion for the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces is to become interoperable with the U.S. military and the U.S. military’s goal is to have a partner for counter-terrorism and peacekeeping operations.

There are bigger picture benefits to these goals that many people might not understand, according to Nunn. For example, that right now there are Moroccan peace keepers in Kosovo and the Ivory Coast, and he said the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces plays an important role providing a source of stability to a region that has recently been experiencing dramatic change.

“Our annual engagement with the Moroccan military helps improve regional stability,” said Nunn. “African Lion is the United States single largest military engagement on the continent of Africa this year. This exercise reinforces essential values, such as respect for the rule of law, discipline and the supremacy of civilian authority, which our professional militaries have in common.”

Exercise African Lion 2011 is an annually scheduled, joint, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise. It brings together nearly 2,000 U.S. service members from locations throughout Europe and North America with more than 900 members of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces. It is the largest exercise within the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility, and is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation’s military tactics, techniques and procedures. All U.S. forces will return to their home bases in the United States and Europe at the conclusion of the exercise.