US, Morocco conduct chemical, biological, radioactive, and nuclear response demonstration at African Lion 2024

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AGADIR, Morocco – Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR) and U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 53rd Ordnance Company (EOD), 3rd EOD Battalion, 71st Ordnance Group (EOD) trained together on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) procedures during exercise African Lion 2024 (AL24) in Agadir, Morocco, May 21, 2024.

AL24 is U.S. Africa Command’s premier joint exercise, led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), running from April 19 to May 31 across Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, and Tunisia, with over 8,100 participants from 27 nations and NATO contingents.

“EOD’s mission involves chemical ordnance,” said U.S. Army Spc. Maitlan Cherry, from Oceanside, California, an EOD specialist with the 53rd Ordnance Company. “What I’ve seen so far training with the Moroccan Armed Forces is we both share the same basic knowledge in EOD.”

“The EOD and CBRN training involved rehearsals with a robot picking up an improvised explosive device and moving it into place,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Connor Brown of Houston, Texas, a team leader with the 53rd Ordnance Company. The 53rd Ordnance Company coordinated a bomb suit run, and the FAR worked to destroy and render the area safe.

“We’ve worked very hard in conjunction with the Moroccan set-up for this exercise, and we could not be happier with the excellent performance from the FAR today,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. David Sanderson, the regional cooperative engagement deputy for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

“The FAR excelled and exceeded all expectations. This really puts a good light on cooperation between the U.S. and Morocco.”

Training in EOD and CBRN tasks together is just one of many training scenarios executed during the exercise. Each day during AL24, partner countries engage in numerous missions covering a wide array of military capabilities to test the strategic readiness of the combined, joint force and strengthen the partnerships between the U.S. military, African armed forces and NATO allies.

“We should all be excited to participate in this exercise because it’s about relationship-building with your partner force,” Cherry said. “I would strongly encourage anyone to engage with a partner force, talk to them, and learn from them.”

This year marks AL24’s 20th anniversary, but for some Soldiers, this is their first combined, joint exercise experience.

“This is my first time being part of the African Lion exercise,” said Brown. “It’s always exciting to go to another country. Maybe they do things differently than you do, so it’s good to learn from that.”

About African Lion

2024 marks the 20th anniversary of U.S. Army Africa Command's premier and largest annual, combined, joint exercise African Lion. This year’s exercise will take place April 19 through May 31 and is hosted across Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia with more than 8,100 participants from over 27 nations and contingents from NATO. African Lion 24 focuses on enhancing readiness between the U.S. and partner nation forces. This joint all-domain, multi-component, and multinational exercise, employs a full array of mission capabilities with the goal to strengthen interoperability among participants and set the theater for strategic access.

African Lion content can be found on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).

About SETAF-AF

SETAF-AF provides U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Army Europe and Africa a dedicated headquarters to synchronize Army activities in Africa and scalable crisis-response options in Africa and Europe.

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