TUNIS, Tunisia — As part of U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual exercise, African Lion 2026, approximately 550 service members in Tunisia participated in a multinational training event that included significant focus on strengthening cyber defense capabilities in North Africa.
The cyber portion of AL26 aimed to build its participants’ capacity by teaching the standards and mechanisms adopted in cyber defense through academic instruction. Training coordinators designed the content to improve the skills of cyber incident response teams by using simulations to practice countering cyberattacks. The training also focused on the mechanisms for investigating and conducting forensic analysis of cyber incidents.
“This cyber training means a great deal,” said U.S. Army Maj. Joseph Augustin of the U.S. Army Reserve Cyber Protection Brigade. “It means we are broadening our partnership and learning from each other now so when there is a real war in the cyber domain, we have some familiarity with one another.”
This year’s exercise marked a significant milestone as the first time U.S. Soldiers have trained alongside the Agence des Renseignements et de la Sécurité pour la Défense, the Tunisian Armed Forces’ intelligence arm. This inaugural collaboration was a key step in strengthening the security partnership between the two nations.
“The importance of the cyber training we are conducting with the Tunisian Armed Forces is twofold,” Augustin said. “One, it allows our U.S. cyber Soldiers to train collectively. As a reserve unit, most of our time together is spent on completing administrative tasks. Exercises like this allow us to pause the admin work and focus on our primary duties. It helps us identify our strengths and weaknesses so we can address them. Secondly, it allows us to learn from a partner who may do things differently — a sharing of knowledge.”
African Lion 2026 is a multinational exercise led by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) to build readiness, interoperability and regional stability. The exercise brings together U.S., African and allied forces, not only in Tunisia, but also in Morocco, Ghana and Senegal.
According to exercise planners, the objectives for AL26 included building combined joint readiness with allies and partners and integrating the Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center — Morocco into training activities. The exercise also incorporated a wide range of scenarios, from large-scale combat operations to crisis response, while integrating U.S. and partner initiatives to expand operational capability and training capacity.
The exercise provided a platform to prove a high return on investment with tangible benefits from the U.S. security model that showcased how innovation, the State Partnership Program and burden-sharing combine to counter competitor influence and build a more secure, stable and partner-led region. Training events spanned a variety of missions, including crisis response, counterterrorism, peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
