Conveniently-Scheduled Joint US-SA Exercises?

Do you think the joint exercises in South Africa right now were timed at all to coincide with Zimbabwe's elections? Maybe having a broad spectrum of US capabilities a 2-hour flight away has helped keep possible violence in check in Mugabeland?

Approximately 700 U.S. and 3,000 South African Defense Force service members gathered [in Port Elizabeth, Republic of South Africa] for the opening ceremony of Exercise Shared Accord 13, July 24. This is the second exercise of its type between these two countries and is the result of bilateral discussions that originated in 2009, and were approved in 2010. "This particular exercise is aimed at specifically providing collective training for the United States and the South African National Defense Force while building interoperability and mutual understanding between the two armed forces," said South African Maj. Gen. Ephraim Phako, deputy chief of Joint Operations.

So what exactly did we deploy out there?

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, will be making-up the bulk of U.S. forces involved in the exercise. They will be joined by service members with 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, District of Columbia Army National Guard, Rhode Island Air National Guard, New York Army National Guard, 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Medical Command and 1172nd Movement Control Team.

Let's face it, the outcome of the 'election' was never in doubt, but the potential violence surrounding it always could've been worse. After all, last time there was an "election" the Mugabians weren't so thrilled about it.

Mr Mugabe was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying the veterans had asked approval to take up arms but he had dissuaded them. They said Zimbabwe was won 'by the barrel of the gun' and should not be surrendered by a vote, he said.

View Larger Map By: Brant

US Africa Footprint Expanding

Niger has OK'ed the US for drone deployments on their territory. No word on whether we've got permission for all the airspace they'll be zipping around, or if we're just doing it anyway.

Niger has given permission for U.S. surveillance drones to be stationed on its territory to improve intelligence on al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters in northern Mali and the wider Sahara, a senior government source said.
The U.S. ambassador to Niger, Bisa Williams, made the request at a meeting on Monday with President Mahamadou Issoufou, who immediately accepted it, the source said.
"Niger has given the green light to accepting American surveillance drones on its soil to improve the collection of intelligence on Islamist movements," said the source, who asked not to be identified.
The drones could be stationed in Niger's northern desert region of Agadez, which borders Mali, Algeria and Libya, the source said.
A spokesperson for the United States' African Command (AFRICOM) declined to comment.
The United States already has drones and surveillance aircraft stationed at several points around Africa. Its only permanent military base is in the small country of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, more than 3,000 miles from Mali.

By: Brant

Military Maps: Camp Lemonier

In case you were wondering what the base of most US actions in HOA looks like, here's the sat view of Camp Lemonier, and the aircraft that were on the tarmac that day.


View Larger Map

By: Brant

An Excellent Timeline on What Happened in Benghazi

Yahoo! News put together a very good timeline on the events during and since Benghazi

Sept. 11: The Attack
2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (8:30 p.m. Benghazi time): U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens steps outside the consulate to say goodbye to a Turkish diplomat. There are no protesters at this time. (“Everything is calm at 8:30,” a State Department official would later say at an Oct. 9 background briefing for reporters. “There’s nothing unusual. There has been nothing unusual during the day at all outside.”)
3 p.m.: Ambassador Stevens retires to his bedroom for the evening. (See Oct. 9 briefing.)
Approximately 3:40 p.m. A security agent at the Benghazi compound hears “loud noises” coming from the front gate and “gunfire and an explosion.” A senior State Department official at the Oct. 9 briefing says that “the camera on the main gate reveals a large number of people – a large number of men, armed men, flowing into the compound.”
About 4 p.m.: This is the approximate time of attack that was given to reporters at a Sept. 12 State Department background briefing. An administration official identified only as “senior administration official one” provides an official timeline of events at the consulate, but only from the time of the attack — not prior to the attack. The official says, “The compound where our office is in Benghazi began taking fire from unidentified Libyan extremists.” (Six of the next seven entries in this timeline — through 8:30 p.m. EDT — all come from the Sept. 12 briefing. The exception being the 6:07 p.m. entry, which comes from Reuters.)
About 4:15 p.m.: “The attackers gained access to the compound and began firing into the main building, setting it on fire. The Libyan guard force and our mission security personnel responded. At that time, there were three people inside the building: Ambassador Stevens, one of our regional security officers, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith.”
Between 4:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: Sean Smith is found dead.
About 4:45 p.m.: “U.S. security personnel assigned to the mission annex tried to regain the main building, but that group also took heavy fire and had to return to the mission annex.”
About 5:20 p.m.: “U.S. and Libyan security personnel … regain the main building and they were able to secure it.”
Around 6 p.m.: “The mission annex then came under fire itself at around 6 o’clock in the evening our time, and that continued for about two hours. It was during that time that two additional U.S. personnel were killed and two more were wounded during that ongoing attack.”
6:07 p.m.: The State Department’s Operations Center sends an email to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and other government agencies that said Ansar al-Sharia has claimed credit for the attack on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. (The existence of the email was not disclosed until Reuters reported it on Oct. 24.)
About 8:30 p.m.: “Libyan security forces were able to assist us in regaining control of the situation. At some point in all of this – and frankly, we do not know when – we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport.”
About 10:00 p.m.: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issues a statement confirming that one State official was killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Her statement, which MSNBC posted at 10:32 p.m., made reference to the anti-Muslim video.
Clinton: Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.

Much more at the link.
By: Brant

GEN Rodriguez to AFRICOM?

What would his potential assignment to AFRICOM do to how the US approaches missions on the continent?

Gen. David M. Rodriguez, a former top Army commander in Afghanistan, has been chosen by the Pentagon to take charge of the military’s Africa Command, which in the wake of the Arab Spring has become one of the Defense Department’s most challenging theaters of operation.

Under plans that still need formal approval from the White House and confirmation by the Senate, General Rodriguez, who is now head of the Army’s Forces Command, which trains and equips troops, would take over early next year from Gen. Carter Ham in what two American officials said was a routine change of command.

Because of the presidential election and the need to get the necessary paperwork ready, General Rodriguez’s expected nomination would probably not go to the Senate for confirmation until the postelection session, the officials said. In his current job, General Rodriguez, whose troops call him General Rod, is responsible for training and equipping 265,000 active-duty soldiers, as well as training and overseeing the readiness of 560,000 soldiers in the Army Reserve and Army National Guard.

But the general, a West Point graduate, also has extensive combat experience. He served two tours in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan, including a stint in eastern Afghanistan as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division and later as deputy commander of allied forces there with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the war.

General Rodriguez was one of the architects of the operation in which President Obama ordered an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan in late 2009.

By: Brant

SF Ops in Africa Focusing on Intel Work?

WaPo has a very revealing - and long - article about the expansion of special ops missions in Africa, and their focus on intel work.

About a dozen air bases have been established in Africa since 2007, according to a former senior U.S. commander involved in setting up the network. Most are small operations run out of secluded hangars at African military bases or civilian airports.

The nature and extent of the missions, as well as many of the bases being used, have not been previously reported but are partially documented in public Defense Department contracts. The operations have intensified in recent months, part of a growing shadow war against al-Qaeda affiliates and other militant groups. The surveillance is overseen by U.S. Special Operations forces but relies heavily on private military contractors and support from African troops.

The surveillance underscores how Special Operations forces, which have played an outsize role in the Obama administration’s national security strategy, are working clandestinely all over the globe, not just in war zones. The lightly equipped commando units train foreign security forces and perform aid missions, but they also include teams dedicated to tracking and killing terrorism suspects.

How do you see the future of US operations in Africa? Conventional missions? SF ops supporting FD? Quasi-wars and proxy wars against trans-national troublemakers? Zimbabwe continuing under the rule of Methuselah Robert Mugabe?

By: Brant

AFRICOM and New US Regionally-Aligned Brigades

The Stars & Stripes has an article on the new regional brigade concept and the first rotation through AFRICOM.

A U.S.-based unit has been selected as the Army’s first “regionally aligned” brigade, and by next year its soldiers could begin conducting operations in Africa.

It is the first step in an effort to develop expert units to rotate through a region.

U.S. Africa Command will be the first to test the new rotational model, intended to give commanders a more reliable supply of soldiers available for short, training-focused missions.

Army chief of staff Gen. Raymond Odierno on Wednesday said that a brigade from the 10th Mountain Division has been picked to lead the effort in Africa.

Plans also call for brigades to eventually be aligned with Southern, Central and Pacific Commands, Odierno said. The number of brigades aligned with a given region will depend on the needs of the respective combatant commands.

“So as they go through a training process, then they become available for a period a time, nine to 12 months,” Odierno said. “And then they can use those forces to meet whatever requirements they might have. It might be rotational forces. It could be building partner capacity. It could be providing security assistance. It could be doing exercises.”

By: Brant

AFRICOM Looking to Assist Libyan Military

In rebuilding the Libyan military after the revolution, AFRICOM is taking the lead on planning to assist and developing ways to cooperate.

The United States is in discussions with Libya over ways to help rebuild the country’s military, which the U.S. military considers essential to unify the country and bring rival militias under national control.

“We’re looking for ways in which we can be helpful,” said Army Gen. Carter Ham, commander of U.S. Africa Command. “They have to find some way to form a national army.”

In an interview in Washington, Ham said the discussions had not reached the level of agreeing to specific cooperation. If the countries do establish a relationship, it would not be the scale of U.S. efforts to rebuild the militaries of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We’d like, for example, to begin having Libyan officers come to U.S. staff colleges,” he said, adding that the United States could also sell Libya equipment and offer training.

By: Brant

US Failing Geography... Again?

Because nothing screams "AFRICOM" quite like "Houston"...

Houston is among the cities vying to become the next home of U.S. Africa Command, one of the Defense Department's six regional military headquarters.

Texas lawmakers, city officials and local business leaders hope Houston's low cost of living and many diplomatic and economic ties to the African continent will persuade the Pentagon to move AFRICOM from its current base in Germany to Ellington Field in Houston.

If the bid is successful, it would bring hundreds of jobs - and a four-star general - to the city.

AFRICOM led initial operations in Libya before NATO took over. Its presence at Ellington would boost Houston's strategic importance at a time when the U.S. is strengthening military partnerships in Africa as part of its proxy war against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab in Somalia.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, has offered language in the Military Construction Appropriations Bill requiring a transparent process to the selection of AFRICOM's permanent headquarters.

The language would not allow funds to be appropriated for a permanent AFRICOM headquarters overseas until the Pentagon analyzes the costs of establishing a permanent location in another country versus in the U.S. The bill has passed the Senate and is in conference in the House of Representatives.

I know, right? What we really need is the African ops headquarters sooooo much further from Africa, eh?

By: Brant

AFRICOM Lessons from Libya

AFRICOM is talking publicly about lessons learned from the Libya operations

Inside Africom, the general said, the greatest learning curve involved kinetic targeting.
“It was not something we had practiced; we didn’t have great capability honed and refined inside the organization, and Odyssey Dawn really caused us to work in that regard,” Ham said.
The command had to define what effects it needed, and what specific targets would contribute to achieving those effects – a precise endeavor, Ham said. If attacking a communications node, planners must ask themselves what does that particular node do? How does it connect to other nodes? What’s the right munition to use? What’s the likelihood of collateral damage? What’s the right time of day to hit it? What’s the right delivery platform? And finally, how to synchronize attacks.
“That level of detail and precision … was not something the command had practiced to the degree that we were required to do in Odyssey Dawn,” Ham said.
The expertise came very quickly, the general added.
“It’s unsurprising to you that most of the intelligence analysts, most of the targeteers across the United States military have done this in previous deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and other places,” Ham said. “They know how to do it but, collectively, Africa Command had not previously done this.”
Ways to sustain this expertise is something the command must look at in the future, the general said The same is true, he added, in the maritime environment.

By: Brant

BUB: Morning Headlines

WikiLeaks is at it again, threatening a huge data dump on the Iraq war. Given that there were so many more people deployed in Iraq than Afghanistan, the number of documents will be significantly greater.

China's giving some hints of their political succession process with the elevation of VP Xi Jinping to a key military committee. This move comes as more countries are looking for help from China to contain Nork WMDs. Given that the Chinese have been pretty cavalier about UN sanctions against Iran over their nuclear development, one wonders if China is really the right partner to lean on the Norks.

Guess what? There's a whole flotilla of terrorist enablers preparing to run the blockade that Israel has around Gaza. Sigh.

Back to Afghanistan, where the Kings of War discuss why Sweden should stay in Afghanistan. Most importantly, they draw the comparisons between the political discussions in Sweden and those in NATO countries, as Europeans debate their continued presence in Afghanistan.

US AFRICOM hosted a maritime security conference attended by 19 African countries and 5 European ones.

By: Brant

GEN Ham Nominated for AFRICOM

The Army has recommended GEN Ham assume AFRICOM as their 2d CG.

The Army general leading the Pentagon's review on ending the ban on gays in the military has been nominated to head U.S. Africa Command.
If confirmed, Gen. Carter Ham would be only the second officer to head the nascent command, which has struggled to gain a foothold on the sprawling continent that houses some of the world's growing terror threats.
Launched in Oct. 2008, Africa Command is the newest of the military's six regional headquarters and is based in Stuttgart, Germany. The Pentagon abandoned efforts to base the command on the continent after it hit resistance among the African nations, and instead posted about two dozen liaison officers at embassies.
Africom, as it's called, has had to convince African leaders that the U.S. is there to assist the countries, and is not planning to build military bases there. The U.S. military currently has a base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti.
Over the past two years, the command has worked to set up training programs, promote development and stability, and establish stronger military ties with the countries and island nations.

By: Brant

BUB: Exercises A-Go-Go

South Korea aren't the only ones holding large-scale exercises right now. This afternoon's BUB looks at some of the others.


The Brits and Indians are staging a submarine duel while PM Cameron is in town.

The Indian and British navies are all set to launch submarine combat wargames on the western coast on Wednesday, even as British PM David Cameron begins his three-day visit to India.

[--snip--]

As for the naval wargames beginning Wednesday, the Trafalgar-class HMS Talent submarine is going to match its combat skills against the Indian INS Shankush submarine off the Goa coast.

Along with this, the Indian and British navies are also conducting a "table-top'' exercise, dubbed Konkan-2010'', at the maritime warfare centre in Mumbai. "Experiences from this exercise will be utilised to refine concepts for future Konkan exercises with warships, submarines and aircraft,'' said an official.

+++

The US and Mozambique will hold a joint exercise under AFRICOM.

The U.S. and Mozambican militaries have begun a week of joint training exercises in peacekeeping and humanitarian relief operations.

Mozambique's defense ministry said Wednesday the exercises in Moamba district, in southern Mozambique, will include about 800 Mozambican and 700 U.S. personnel.

+++

China is feeling the need to show off their own naval muscles in response to recent US-SK puddle-splashing.

China's air force this week is conducting a five-day exercise involving scores of aircraft and 12,000 soldiers. Dubbed "Vanguard 2010," it is the latest sign of China flexing its muscles amid rising military tensions with the United States.

The strains — especially over operations in the South China Sea — represent a new area of dispute between China and the U.S.

China's military drills were once top secret, announced only after they were completed. But these days China's armed forces seem to want to broadcast its movements to the world.

This latest exercise is taking place in the central province of Henan and eastern province of Shandong, which abuts the Yellow Sea, and includes 100 military aircraft. It is the latest in a series of high-profile maneuvers, including naval exercises last week in the South China Sea, which were the largest of their kind.

By: Brant

Rwanda Hails Joint Exercises

Rwanda's Army Chief is sending the love to the upcoming AFRICOM exercise.

The Rwanda Defence Forces, Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Caesar Kayizari has hailed US Africa Command (AFRICOM) initiative Africa Endeavour (AE) saying it will improve communication between African armies.

Speaking at the opening of the five-day planning conference for an AE 2010 communications training exercise, scheduled for August in Accra, Ghana, Kayizari noted that the upcoming exercise: "Will not only provide an opportunity for going through various tests, but will give an overall picture and status of communication and information systems and baseline for interoperability for African armed forces."

"But in addition, it will also move fellow Africans towards a single location for a common goal that will equally improve cohesion."

He explained that it will improve cohesion through the sharing of cultural values, "improving esprit de corps and human interoperability or social networks required for laying a strong foundation for a peaceful Africa."

The final planning conference of Africa's largest interoperability exercise is being attended by over 140 participants from over 30 African nations.

By: Brant

Combined Maneuvers in Africa

Counter-terror maneuvers are underway in sub-Saharan Africa.

Military exercises are under way in the Sahel region as part of the United States-led Trans-Saharan Counter Terrorism Partnership. Participating militaries are enthusiastic, but civil society cautions that force may not be enough to ensure regional security.

In recent years, the area between the southern limits of the Sahara desert but north of where West Africa's savanna begins - has been the theatre for operations by militia groups linked to Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (known by its French acronym AQMI). In addition, organised crime syndicates conduct racketeering and smuggling activities in the region.

Operation Flintlock 2010, taking place from May 3-22, is the latest in a series of annual U.S. military exercises in Africa, and will include forces from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Chad and Tunisia. Some 1,200 soldiers will be involved: 600 U.S. Special Forces, 400 from the various African armies, and 150 drawn from European countries, including France and the United Kingdom.

"The goal is to establish trust and build relationships with military forces of other countries," said Anthony Holmes, deputy to the commander of civil-military activities of the U.S. military command for Africa (AFRICOM).

The manoeuvres, which will be supervised by U.S. officers, are being run from a Multi-National Coordination Centre set up for the purpose in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

By: Brant

BUB: African Developments

An ECOWAS meeting pledges military force off the table for political interventions.

The 27th ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff (CCDS) meeting has ended in Cotonou, Benin Republic with a resolution that "enough is enough with regards to military intervention in the politics of member nations."

Towards giving teeth to the resolution, the ECOWAS Defence Chiefs decided to send the Chiefs of Defence Staff of Ghana, Liberia, Togo and Cape Verde to Guinea Bissau, which has been having continuing disruption of democratic governance by its military, "to express our unhappiness and misgivings at the consistent military interventions in the country."

The body stressed that "any further disrespect for political authority must be condemned in the strongest terms” “military government is no longer in vogue and we must move ahead with the times."
Addressing newsmen at the end of the meeting, the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike, who is the chairman of the CCDS, announced that the next quarterly meeting of the body would be held in Guinea Bissau "to make collective strong representation to the military so that they fall in line as other militaries in the region."

He also said that the body resolved that "pro-active steps will be taken to counter the activities of extreme religious groups prevalent in the Sahel region of West Africa."
It therefore tasked the Chiefs of Defence Staff of Mali and Niger to study the problem of religious extremists and ways to tackle them and report to the next meeting of the body.

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US AFRICOM has helped the Liberians re-institute their Coast Guard.

A small team from the newly formed Liberian Coast Guard successfully launched, for the first time, a Zodiac boat off of Bushrod Island, the historic home of the Liberian maritime forces, March 25, 2010.

The event was historic for the unit of 49 men and one woman, which was activated just more than a month earlier at Liberia's 53rd Annual Armed Forces Day in Monrovia.

At the activation ceremony, coast guard members marched in formation onto Monrovia's Barclay Training Center parade field. Standing at attention in their new white uniforms, a strong contrast to the sea of green fatigues worn by soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), the coast guard received its charge from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and its guidon.

After a decade's long absence from the water, the coast guard's activation signaled Liberia's commitment to reestablish its presence on its territorial waters.

"What is especially significant this Armed Forces Day is the reactivation of the Liberian National Coast Guard…," Sirleaf said during the ceremony. "Under the 2008 National Defense Act, we are obliged to develop and re-establish our capacity to man our territorial waters. The coast guard has a mandate to improve the security of our coastline and control smuggling and illegal fishing. I congratulate you, the members of the coast guard, who have pledged to safeguard Liberia's territorial waters."

Watching from the stands that day, and also looking on with pride the day of the boat launch, was U.S. Coast Guard Commander Jennifer Ketchum, who works out of U.S. Africa Command's (AFRICOM) Monrovia Office of Security Cooperation, responsible for coordinating all security cooperation engagements between the U.S. and Liberia.

"This is a great job," she said, "being able to see and measure success and help the Liberians."

"This is the first we've had the boat out and I'm so excited I just can't tell you," said Ketchum. "A lot of training has come before this and I'm just really proud of the guys today for getting out here and launching the boat."

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The South Africans are putting the military back on border patrol duty, especially facing Zimbabwe.

The first four SA National Defence Force (SANDF) companies to take over border security from the SA Police Service (Saps) on the northern borders, held a farewell parade in Bloemfontein on Monday.

SANDF chief Lieutenant General Solly Shoke said the troop deployment would work closely with other law enforcement agencies along South Africa's borders, as they had done in the past.

The group of soldiers is part of the first phase of the South African Border Management Agency (BMA) approved by Cabinet in October 2009.

The four companies, of about 130 soldiers each, would be deployed on South Africa's north-eastern borders with Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The soldiers would conduct foot and mobile patrols, monitor the border fence and supply reaction capabilities.

Shoke said advance teams of SANDF engineers were already deployed to the areas, including bases at Musina and Pontdrif, to prepare the facilities for the troops.

By: Brant

AFRICOM Focusing on Diplomacy

Right in line with the conference at UNC, the civilian deputy commander at AFRICOM is stressing diplomacy to the military audience.

Soldiers and civilians from US Army Africa must act as ambassadors, US Africa Command’s senior civilian leader told attendees of the Great Lakes Seminar held this week in Vicenza, Italy.
Ambassador J. Anthony Holmes, AFRICOM’s deputy to the commander for civil military activities, opened the three-day professional development event geared toward East Africa amid his official visit to US Army Africa headquarters at Caserma Ederle. The seminar’s coursework offers important background for US Army Africa staff as they partner with land forces in Africa, Holmes said.

“You’re representing not only your military service and AFRICOM, but the United States,” Holmes said. “You are creating impression of who we are and what we do.”

Roughly 130 Soldiers and civilians from US Army Africa, US Africa Command and Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa took part in the seminar. Many attendees already gained an appreciation for the Great Lakes Region – the area in East Africa near Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, Kivu, Edward and Albert – during recent military familiarization events in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. Others took part in Natural Fire 10. Held in Uganda in October 2009, the humanitarian and civil assistance exercise brought together the land forces from five East African nations, plus more than 500 US service members – the largest US Defense Department exercise held in Africa last year.

“We have a lot of experience in the Great Lakes region, but we understand the need to continue learning,” said Maj. Gen. William B. Garrett III, commander of US Army Africa. “We have to think critically about the challenges we face and apply creative solutions.”

The instructors were from US and international governments, universities and think tanks.

Lectures were offered on geography, governance, culture, economics, public health and crime.

By: Brant

An Overview of US Efforts in Africa

The article is a bit long, but it provides a nice overview of the US efforts in Africa.

When Pres. Barack Obama took office in January 2009, it was widely expected that he would dramatically change, or even reverse, the militarised and unilateral security policy that had been pursued by the George W. Bush administration toward Africa, as well as toward other parts of the world.
After one year in office, however, it is clear that the Obama administration is following essentially the same policy that has guided U.S. military policy toward Africa for more than a decade. Indeed, the Obama administration is seeking to expand U.S. military activities on the continent even further.

In its FY 2011 budget request for security assistance programmes for Africa, the Obama administration is asking for 38 million dollars for the Foreign Military Financing programme to pay for U.S. arms sales to African countries.

The administration is also asking for 21 million dollars for the International Military Education and Training Programme to bring African military officers to the United States, and 24.4 million dollars for Anti-Terrorism Assistance programmes in Africa.

The Obama administration has also taken a number of other steps to expand U.S. military involvement in Africa.

Read more at the link...

By: Brant

The Next Front in The War On Terror

AFRICOM is taking more and more of the lead in the long-term view of the 'war on terror'.

What is the current meaning of "War against Terror” for Africa? The true intention of America's recent military interventions in the African continent (both covert and open) is nothing other than the expansion and consolidation of Western capital. It all started in 2001 when George W. Bush declared his "War on Terror" in the continent, but has developed in a manner that has gone beyond human imagination in the body counts on the streets of Somalia, in the jungles of Uganda and Congo, and deserts of Sudan. The chief of the US African Command, General E. Ward, explained this in language more clear than that of any US politician when he stated that an Africa in which "African populations are able to provide for themselves, contribute to global economic development and are allowed access to markets in free, fair, and competitive ways, is good for America and the world..."

By: Brant

NATO's Involvements in Africa

Earlier we looked at Germany's sub-Saharan adventures. Here's a run-down of other action by NATO on the dark continent. Please try to read through the pejoratives; it's a bit of a biased website.

NATO has now joined AFRICOM's first war, in Somalia.

The bloc's Allied Command Operations website announced on March 18 that from March 5-16 the North Atlantic military alliance had airlifted 1,700 Ugandan troops from their homeland to the Somali capital of Mogadishu for the intensified fighting that began there earlier this month.

The Pentagon supplied the transport planes "under the NATO banner" and the operation was "undertaken by USA contracted DynCorp International." [2]

The commander of AFRICOM, General William Ward, recently informed the Senate Armed Services Committee of plans to focus the military command's attention on East Africa and indicated plans to assist the formal government of Somalia to reclaim the country's capital.

In May the European Union is to began training 2,000 Ugandan troops for deployment to war-wracked Somalia to assist the regime being propped up by the West.

NATO recently confirmed that it has prolonged an agreement to provide strategic sealift and airlift support for African (Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundian) troops to assist Somalia's Transitional Federal Government in the nation's civil war.

The bloc's European command, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), "delegated the authority to Joint Command Lisbon to have the operational lead for NATO engagements with the African Union and they provide the majority of the personnel to support the mission." [3]

As with the government of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, the Western-backed Transitional Federal Government doesn't even control its own capital. Since last week fighting there has led to hundreds of people being killed and wounded and thousands displaced.

Six days earlier NATO effected a changing of the guard "in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin" [4] as part of its Operation Ocean Shield, and five warships of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 joined four from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 in Djibouti, where there are some 2,000 U.S. troops and where AFRICOM bases its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. Djibouti also hosts over 1,000 French soldiers and France's second largest military base abroad.

On March 10 NATO extended its deployment of warships in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa until the end of 2012 in what originally was portrayed as an ad hoc, short-term deployment when Operation Ocean Shield was initiated last August following Operation Allied Protector in March. Instead, NATO has effectively expanded its over eight-year-old naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea, Operation Active Endeavor, through the Red Sea and into the Arabian Sea and is now involved in the Horn of Africa both on land and at sea.

The Standing NATO Maritime Groups consist of warships from member states assigned for the occasion - the latest deployment in the Gulf of Aden includes a U.S. ship - and is under the command of Allied Component Command Maritime Naples, one of the two Component Commands of Allied Joint Force Command Naples.

Allied Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples) was inaugurated six years ago as part of NATO strategy to deploy further south and east, succeeding Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH). The reorganization was a component of Alliance transformation policy growing out of the 2002 NATO summit in Prague. JFC Naples takes in the entire NATO Area of Responsibility (AOR) which, as will be seen, includes the Balkans, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea region and Iraq.

By: Brant