The Department of Defense's Africa Command began its largest annual training exercise this week, called African Lion 25. Next month, training events are scheduled in Ghana, Senegal, and Morocco. Ten thousand soldiers representing 40 different nations will participate.
"African Lion 25 is AFRICOM’s largest multinational, combined joint exercise in Africa. It demonstrates the capabilities of the total force by building strategic readiness and interoperability with our African partners and allies to deploy, fight, and win in a complex multi-domain environment," explained Maj. Gen. Andrew C. Gainey, who is the commander of U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, which runs the exercise.
African Lion is designed to take place across all of the domains of warfare, including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Some of the scheduled training events include, "airborne and amphibious operations, special operations forces, HIMARS rapid insertion, humanitarian civic assistance, and medical readiness engagements" all of which is designed to build strategic partnerships and interoperability between the various countries that are participating and "supporting the shared goal of increased security and stability on the continent," a DOD press release states.
Several new capabilities are also slated to be tested out during African Lion 25, such as integrated cyber defense training and testing out the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon.
Now in its 25th year, African Lion began in 2004 and became AFRICOM's largest annual training exercise.