Royal Moroccan Navy conducts tracking exercise with the USS Hershel Woody Williams

The Royal Moroccan Navy frigate Mohammed V has conducted a military exercise with the Regional Operations Center, tracking USS Hershel «Woody» Williams and simulating an interception and boarding off the Moroccan coast.

According to Navy Recognition, the exercise is meant to «build partnership and exercise Moroccan capabilities to track and intercept vessels within the country’s Economic Exclusion Zone» (EEZ).

Said exercise included simulated man overboard scenarios and communication links between two vessels and an MH-60S helicopter, the same source added.

The exercise comes as Morocco participated on September 7 in an air interoperability mission. «Four F-16s from the Moroccan Air Force participated in training evolution alongside U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortresses and the Arleigh-Burke guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt in the southern Mediterranean Sea», it added.

For the record, Morocco will be hosting African Lion in FY2021. It also participates in other U.S. military exercises, including Flintlock, Phoenix Express, and Obangame Express.