French Nuclear Submarine to Join Naval Exercise with Morocco for First Time

The cooperation between the French Navy and its Moroccan counterpart is strengthening. The thirtieth edition of Chebec will be held from October 7 to 13, 2024. The novelty of this edition? For the first time, a nuclear attack submarine (SSN) will be engaged in this annual exercise. A first phase at the quay is planned, "the Franco-Moroccan flotilla, at least the surface units, having to meet in Casablanca, before evolving in a second time up to the Alboran Sea, along the Mediterranean coasts of Morocco," reports Mer et Marine.

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"This edition, which includes for the first time an anti-submarine warfare component, illustrates the increase in operational cooperation activities desired by Morocco and France, the two navies having ASW capabilities," it is explained at the command of the French Navy in the Mediterranean. This cooperation activity will also consolidate the interoperability of the participating units in the fields of maritime security and safety. "The ultimate goal is to confirm the ability of the two parties to operate jointly and to respond, if necessary, to a crisis situation at sea," it is added.

The identity of all the units that will be engaged by the French military is unknown. In addition to an SSN (certainly an old generation Rubis-type submarine), France will engage a La Fayette-type frigate (FLF). For its part, Morocco could deploy its SIGMA-family corvettes, equipped with a KingKlip hull-mounted sonar and acquired from the Dutch group Damen in 2011 and 2012, or the Mohammed VI, equipped with a UMS 4110 hull-mounted sonar and a Captas-4 variable depth sonar system. At least one unit.