By Marina Malenic
The Pentagon has begun creating a theater Special Operations command to support its sixth and newest regional command, its top general said yesterday.
“We’re going to stand up a theater Special Operations command for Africa,” Army Gen. William Ward, commander of the newly created Africa Command (AFRICOM), told the Defense Writers Group. “Special Operations Command-Africa will eventually take over from Special Operations Command-Europe, and it’s being formed right now.”
The new unit will be headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany.
The U.S. military activated AFRICOM on Oct. 1. The 17th Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, has been designated to support AFRICOM and reached initial operating capability last week, according to Ward. He said that just under 1,000 personnel are expected to compose his command.
The general said he has already requested forces for airlift missions.
“Lift is an important part of our activity on the continent,” he said. “We do have some of that being realized.”
During congressional budget hearings earlier this year, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley told lawmakers AFRICOM’s emergence has increased demand for Boeing [BA]-built C-17 Globemasters, and is one of the reasons more of the airlifters are desired now than previously (Defense Daily, March 10).
Unlike other unified commands, AFRICOM won’t have designated forces. It will largely focus on building partnership capacity.
AFRICOM will not even have permanent bases on the continent and will instead rely on “cooperative security locations” for maintenance, refueling and warehouse storage, Ward said.
“Right now the permanent infrastructure for the command is at Ramstein,” he explained. “As we do our activities on the continent we would have a standing agreement with nations we know where we could get our fuel, for example.”
Meanwhile, Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) is sending the CV-22 Osprey to Africa to support Flintlock ’09, a U.S.-sponsored multinational exercise in North Africa later this month. The exercise will help nations in the area patrol their territory and police their borders, according to Ward.
AFSOC has nine CV-22s — five at Hurlburt Field in Florida and four training units at Kirtland AFB, N.M.
“It will be its first time operating there in Africa,” Ward said of the tiltrotor aircraft.