The US Africa Command (AFRICOM), the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (FAR) and the Utah National Guard organized a training program in Agadir for personnel working with small unmanned aircraft systems (SUAS).
According to the Utah National Guard, the training is designed to produce Moroccan and US operators and instructors while strengthening interoperability between the two armed forces.
The Combined Arms Training Center and the 7th Army Training Command, both attached to the US Army Garrison in Vilseck, Germany, supported Utah National Guard instructors during the program.
The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces and the Utah National Guard met in Agadir in September for a training session focused on small tactical drones.
The training is part of the partnership between Utah and Morocco, which has lasted 23 years.
In 2027, Morocco and the United States will mark 250 years of diplomatic relations. Lieutenant Colonel Corbett Baxter of the Southern European Task Force Africa said, “Events like this give us the opportunity to take an emerging capability and turn it into a tool that our forces can actually use. By training with our Moroccan partners, we are building interoperability while learning how to integrate unmanned systems into broader operations, making the force more capable and more lethal.”
First Lieutenant Jake Sorenson is overseeing the development of Utah’s own drone program. Having recently moved from operational planning to a logistics management position at the Utah Training Center, he is working to identify the capabilities the state needs and explore partnerships with industry.
“We are in the early stages of this joint drone program. Our intention is to create a complete, multi-level training pipeline in Utah and then share it with other partner forces. Utah, like the United States as a whole, realizes that drones are not going away. The faster we integrate them, the more of a lead we gain,” he said.
From counter-drone operations to piloting
Technical Sergeant Michael Bennion of the Utah Air National Guard’s 151st Security Wing is his unit’s counter-drone specialist. Yet he had never piloted an aircraft before taking part in the training.
“I had no idea what drone piloting was about,” he acknowledged. Alongside the Moroccan trainees, he learned about stabilized and non-stabilized flight, control sensitivity and the different operating modes of the aircraft.
“This is the future of warfare. We need to stay at the forefront and learn how to use these systems,” he said. Bennion plans to pass the training on to his unit. He also pointed to possible support for law enforcement during crowd-control operations, including identifying and tracking individuals involved in violent acts.
Chief Warrant Officer Kenton Hemsley, unmanned systems manager at Camp Williams and a member of Utah’s 65th Field Artillery Brigade, wants every military specialty to develop its own procedures for integrating drones.
“We are building the program so that every specialty in every unit can develop its own standard operating procedures and determine how to integrate unmanned systems. Every soldier will need to understand this issue, not only from an operational perspective but also from a defensive one,” he stressed.
Master Sergeant Mohammed Idamr, a trainee with the FAR, gave a positive assessment of the program.
“The SUAS training gave us essential knowledge and practical skills, particularly in drone piloting, mission planning, meteorology, safety and instruction,” he said.
“It strengthened our understanding of the role of unmanned systems in supporting military missions and improving situational awareness, while also helping us train qualified personnel and improve the tactical use of drones within the Armed Forces,” he concluded.
