Moroccan Hercules visits Aviano air base
Alkowat al malakiya al jawiya (RMAF, Royal Moroccan Air Force) C-130H Hercules, serial CN-AOJ (construction number 382-4738), visited Aviano air base (Italy) on 20 and 21 May 2021.
Marco Papa photographed the aircraft with great light conditions against the well-known Aviano background.
The Hercules collected equipment for the upcoming exercise African Lion 21. This exercise will be held in Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal from 7 to 18 June 2021.
It is expected that some Aviano based F-16s will be deployed to Morocco. Details on other participating aircraft is not known yet.
African Lion 21 is led by US Army Africa (Southern European Task Force) as a joint, all-domain, multi-national exercise linked to US European Command’s DEFENDER series exercise to counter malign activity in North Africa and Southern Europe and increase interoperability between US, African and international partners to defend the theater from adversary military aggression.
Almost 4,000 US Service Members will join more than 4,000 troops from Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, NATO and the Netherlands in US AFRICOM’s largest exercise to date.
Last year's exercise was cancelled due to COVID-19.
If you have more information on participating air forces and aircraft, please let us know at
Photo by Marco Papa (instagram @pope_aviation)