The Royal Armed Forces (FAR) are organizing, from September 12 to 23, at the Military Engineering Rescue Unit and the 3rd Royal Air Force Base in Kenitra, the Moroccan-American disaster management exercise dubbed “Maroc Mantlet 2022”.
The program of this exercise includes seminars and training for the benefit of executives and intervention modules as well as field training, in addition to visits of military, American and Moroccan authorities that are planned at the different sites and training workshops.
“Maroc Mantlet” is a combined disaster management exercise, which annually brings together specialized FAR disaster management teams and Utah State National Guard teams as well as the U.S. Risk Reduction Agency. One of its goals is to develop technical and procedural interoperability between the specific modules of the responders.
In a statement to the press, Colonel Mehdi Ouhadi, Commander of the FAR Rescue Unit, Director of the Disaster Management Exercise, said that the Rescue Unit in Kenitra is organizing the joint disaster management exercise on HM King Mohammed VI’s high instructions, and within the framework of the Moroccan-American military cooperation.
He emphasized that this exercise is attended by elements and specialized military from the Royal Armed Forces and the Directorate General of Civil Protection, as well as specialized American teams from the National Guard of the State of Utah and the Risk Reduction Agency, adding that this exercise has as objectives the development of the quality of work, as well as the coordination of the action of the participating rescue units, both Moroccan and American.
He further explained that the Moroccan units participating in the exercise test the technical, tactical and procedural maneuvers with the American side, saying that this exercise also aims to improve the action of firefighting units, especially with regard to extinguishing fires by aircraft and the integration of geographic data systems in disaster management operations.
Ouhadi continued that this exercise takes place in two phases: a theoretical phase within the Unit of Rescue and Rescue in Kenitra, which consists of seminars for the benefit of Moroccan and American participants, while the second, a practical phase, takes place at the 3rd Air Base of the Royal Air Force in Kenitra in coordination between all intervention teams, all specializations, under the supervision of Moroccan and American specialists.
For his part, Major General Michael Turley, Commander of the National Guard of the State of Utah, stressed, in a similar statement, that this joint exercise is developing year after year, adding that the importance of this exercise lies in the ability of the Royal Armed Forces to show the high level of skills with which they are equipped.
After praising the relationship between the Utah National Guard and the Royal Armed Forces, Major General Michael Turley stressed that this exercise encourages the Moroccans and helps them test the skills and knowledge they have acquired, which will strengthen their leadership in the Maghreb, Africa and the Mediterranean region.
During this practical exercise, which took place at the 3rd Air Base of the Royal Air Forces, fire extinguishing simulations were carried out using Canadair aircraft, which carried out water filling operations from the Oued de Sebou before proceeding to extinguish these fires, while the unit specializing in fire extinguishing, under the Royal Armed Forces, simulated a fire extinguishing operation declared on board an aircraft.
The urban search and rescue unit, which participated in the exercise, carried out a simulation of different rescue operations and search for survivors buried under the rubble. The members of this unit rescued about 11 people with the help of trained dogs, used all the techniques and means available to assist people injured in a traffic accident, provide them with emergency first aid and evacuate them to the hospital.
Similarly, the members of the Unit have simulated a rescue operation of people drowned at sea or following floods, as well as people victims of nuclear radiation or chemical and biological products, in addition to the execution of an exercise of evacuation of wounded from high buildings using tactical means.
On the sidelines of this exercise, the Lieutenant General, Inspector General of the FAR and Commander of the South Zone, had received, Tuesday at the headquarters of the General Staff of the FAR, Major General Michael Turley, Commander of the National Guard of the State of Utah, on an official visit to the Kingdom from September 19 to 22, 2022, leading a military delegation.
