Morocco welcomed the Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius as part of the U.S.-Morocco bilateral naval exercise dubbed “Atlas Handshake 23-1.”
The U.S. Embassy in Rabat on Saturday tweeted on “X” (formerly Twitter) that the USS Paul Ignatius had arrived in Agadir along with the Royal Moroccan Navy Frigate Sultan Moulay Ismail. The destroyer, which has been based at the US military port in Rota, Spain since June 2022, is the newest warship in the US Navy’s European fleet.
This exercise endeavors to strengthen and enhance the combat readiness of participating forces in maritime operations and security.
Morocco recently signed an agreement to acquire Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missiles from the United States.