The United States wants to test its future military technologies in Morocco

The “Emerging Technologies for Defense” conference, organized from September 8 to 10, 2026, in Washington by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), brought together American military officials, industry representatives and delegates from partner countries. This edition placed significant emphasis on AFRICOM’s initiatives on the continent.

It above all marked a first: according to the American command, African partner countries participated in this annual meeting for the first time. Morocco was represented by Major General Fouad Moumen, head of the 4ᵗʰ Office of the Royal Armed Forces, who took part in the discussions alongside, among others, Nigerian General Babatunde Ibrahim Alaya, director general of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria.

The discussions focused on defense production, regional training capabilities and interoperability between armed forces, AFRICOM indicates in a report published on September 10.

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Washington wants to reduce the time between developing a technology and using it in the field. “We need to put technology in operators’ hands more quickly; we need to bring engineers and developers closer to the warfighters,” said General Dagvin Anderson, commander of AFRICOM.

The Tan-Tan center presented to American industry

Among the initiatives highlighted in Washington was the Africa Multidomain Training and Experimentation Center (AMTEC), the future training and experimentation center that Morocco and the United States are developing in Tan-Tan.

A memorandum of understanding on its creation was signed on July 13, 2026, at AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart. The facility is intended to allow Moroccan and American forces, as well as defense companies, to test and adapt new technologies under realistic operational conditions.

Morocco has also been integrated into an American network of five sites intended to test new combat capabilities, four of which are located in the United States.

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The novelty of the Washington conference therefore lies less in the announcement of the Tan-Tan center, which was already known, than in its presentation to American industry stakeholders as one of the instruments of AFRICOM’s rapid experimentation strategy in Africa.

Fouad Moumen’s participation in discussions on the defense industry and interoperability also confirms the importance accorded to Morocco in this system. AFRICOM believes that these discussions should contribute to strengthening the industrial capabilities of its partners, their military cooperation and their ability to respond together to regional threats.

The kingdom is thus expected to become a privileged African setting for multidomain training and the experimentation of emerging military technologies, within the framework of its cooperation with the United States.