Militaries from Brazil, Chad, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom will join U.S. and host nation troops
African Lion, U.S. Africa Command’s premier annual exercise, involving more than 7,500 service members which began on June 6 will end next week Thursday June 30.
Led by the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, African Lion 22 is being hosted in four African countries – Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia.
Interestingly, outside participation in naval exercises for the protection of Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria has been conspicuously absent in the U.S.-backed land exercises as its Army is increasingly being isolated.
Four months ago, U.S. joined over 400 service members from over 10 African partner and allied nations to participate in exercise Flintlock, a joint military and law enforcement exercise held in the Sahel and West Africa in Cote d’Ivoire between February 15-28, 2022.
Flintlock, U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual special operations exercise was attended by participating African nations including Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Niger, while Western partners include Canada, the U.S., France, Norway and the United Kingdom.
Under Africa Lion, militaries from Brazil, Chad, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom will join U.S. and host nation troops. U.S. participants come from all its Service components, including the Reserves and National Guard.
African Lion 22 features a joint task force command post exercise, a combined arms live fire exercise, a maritime exercise, an air exercise including bomber aircraft, a joint forcible entry with paratroopers into a field training exercise, a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear response exercise, and a humanitarian civic assistance program event.
The exercise bolsters interoperability among partner nations and supports U.S. military strategic readiness to respond to crises and contingencies in Africa and around the world.
The exercise involved months of collaboration between all participating countries to ensure proper COVID-19 mitigation. Southern European Task Force, Africa, will establish the exercise’s combined joint task force headquarters, integrating AFRICOM components and international partners to solve a complex, trans-regional crisis.
This effort involves strengthening participating nations shared defense capabilities to counter transnational threats and violent extremist organizations, which is in the common good of the U.S. and African partner nations.
