The 2026 African Air Chiefs Symposium will include a live-fly exercise, a first for the intracontinental organization.
In past years, the symposium has been limited to indoor “tabletop” demonstrations. A live-fly exercise is a real-time, full-scale training event designed to simulate combat scenarios and refine aircrew readiness. Such exercises involve flying aircraft in real-world conditions, often involving multiple nations and simulating various operational challenges.
The chiefs of Africa’s air forces made the decision during their 2025 meeting in Zambia. Co-hosted by the Zambia Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Europe-Air Forces Africa, the 2025 event saw more than 240 participants from 38 nations, including air chiefs, liaison officers and senior enlisted representatives. The theme was “Strategic Collaboration and Operational Excellence: Enhancing Effectiveness of the Association of African Air Forces.”
“During the African Air Chiefs Symposium 2024 in Tunisia, it became abundantly clear that the Association of African Air Forces needed to redirect its efforts toward fostering multilateral collaboration and interoperability to confront these shared challenges effectively,” said Zambia Air Force Lt. Gen. Oscar Nyoni, the 2025 association chairman. “Air forces across Africa possess a unique capability to do more than just safeguard our skies. With diverse air assets and skilled personnel, we have the potential to provide vital support to nations in distress.”
During the 2025 event, air force chiefs conducted a tabletop exercise focused on a humanitarian assistance and disaster response scenario. The exercise was a key step in advancing the association’s exercise series, the tactical means by which the association will achieve its goals of developing each member’s capacity, capability and interoperability.
Other symposium highlights included a joint senior enlisted and commander panel, in which African senior enlisted representatives and air chiefs discussed the professional development of their enlisted corps.
The association is a voluntary, nonpolitical organization focused on collaborative engagements to promote African-led air power solutions among 29 African member nations and the U.S. Air Force.