Exercises

In addition to military operations, the United States conducts a number of regular training exercises in Africa.  These exercises have various objectives.  These include building partner nation capabilities broadly, providing specialized training, promoting regional and continental cooperation and cooperation with US forces, preparing African forces for peacekeeping deployments, and training to respond to natural disasters.  The following table is broken into active named training exercises (or those believed to be active) and exercises that are believed to have been discontinued (or were possibly one time events). Currently, AFRICOM’s annual exercise schedule is dominated by the “Accord” series, dealing with improving partner nation land force capabilities and interoperability, and the “Express” series, dealing with the same, but with regards to maritime forces.

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Active Exercises
Name	Type	Frequency	Locale
Africa Endeavor	COMMEX	Annual	West Africa
African Lion	CPX / FTX	Annual	Morocco
Central Accord	FTX	Annual	Various
Cutlass Express	FTX	Annual	East Africa Littorals
Eastern Accord	CPX	Annual	East Africa
Eastern Piper	FTX	Annual	Various
Epic Guardian	CPX / FTX	Annual	Various
Flintlock	FTX	Annual	Various
Judicious Response	CPX	Annual	Various
Majestic Eagle	FTX	Biennial?	Morocco
Med Accord Central	MEDEX	Annual	Central Africa
Med Accord South	MEDEX	Annual	Southern Africa
MEDLITE	MEDEX	Annual	Various
Natural Fire	HAX	Biennial	East Africa
Nectar Bend	FTX	Biennial	Ethiopia
Noble Piper	FTX	Annual	Kenya
Northern Accord	CPX	Annual	North Africa
Obangame Express	FTX	Annual	Gulf of Guinea
Phoenix Express	FTX	Annual	North Africa Littorals (Mediterranean)
Saharan Express	FTX	Annual	North Africa Littorals (Atlantic)
Silent Warrior	FTX	Annual	Sahel Region of Africa
Southern Accord	FTX	Annual	Southern Africa
Southern Warrior	FTX	Annual	Southern Africa
Western Accord	CPX	Annual	Western Africa
Past Exercises
Name	Type	Frequency	Locale
African Eagle	FTX	Biennial	Morocco
Atlas Accord	FTX	Annual	Various
Atlas Drop	FTX	Annual	Various
Atlas Gate	CPX	?	Tunisia
Atlas Hinge	PHIBEX	Annual	Tunisia
Ebony Flame	FTX	?	Djibouti?
Edged Mallet	FTX	Triennial	Kenya?
Edged Response	FTX	?	Kenya?
French Afrique	FTX	Annual	West Africa
MEDFLAG	MEDEX	Annual	Various
MEDREACH	MEDEX	Annual	Various
Shared Accord	FTX	Annual	Southern Africa
Silver Eagle	?	Annual	?

Glossary:
COMMEX – Communications Exercise
CPX – Command Post Exercise
FTX – Field Training Exercise
HAX – Humanitarian Assistance Exercise
MEDEX – Medical Exercise
PHIBEX – Amphibious Exercise