More than 150 members of the joint task force conducting Exercise AFRICAN LION '10 arrived in Agadir, Morocco, May 14, 2010, to mark the beginning of the exercise. The Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen will be participating in the largest exercise in U.S. Africa Command's area of activity.

The 150 service members represent the first phase of arrivals in an exercise that will see more than 1,000 members of the Moroccan military and nearly 1,000 U.S. service members from 16 locations throughout Europe and North America participating in the annually-scheduled, joint, combined U.S.-Moroccan exercise.

"I know I have the best [service members] of what each unit can offer," said Colonel Anthony Fernandez III, Combined Joint Task Force commander for AL'10, while addressing the members of the task force. "This is a complicated exercise, and it is a large exercise; I know we're going to be successful."

Exercise AFRICAN LION, an AFRICOM-sponsored exercise, will include various types of military training including command post, live-fire training, peacekeeping operations, disaster response training, intelligence capacity building seminar, aerial refueling/low level flight training as well as a medical, dental, and veterinarian assistance projects and exercise related construction to run concurrent with the training.

Various units from the Marine Corps Forces Africa and Marine Corps Forces Reserve along with the Tennessee Army National Guard and Naval Forces Africa will conduct bi-lateral training, weapons qualification training and peacekeeping operations training with units from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.

Marines and aircraft from the Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 234 and 11th Tactical Aviation Command will conduct various ground courses as well as aerial refueling and low-level flight training with their counterparts in the Royal Moroccan Air Force.

Concurrent with the exercise, U.S. military professionals from the Utah Army and Air National Guards along with 4th Medical Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, will provide medical, dental and veterinarian assistance to the local residents in and around the community of Taroudant. There will also be Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron-273 and Sailors from 22nd Naval Construction Regiment conducting exercise related construction at the Cap Draa training range.

The exercise is designed to promote interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation's military tactics, techniques and procedures and is scheduled to end on or around June 9. All U.S. forces will return to their home bases in the United States and Europe at the conclusion of the exercise.

The last AFRICA LION exercise occurred in May 2009 and involved about 1,400 Moroccan and U.S. military personnel.

See related article: Equipment Offload Kicks Off Exercise African Lion '10