Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Inside The Pentagon
November 15, 2007
Pg. 1
Senior military and Defense Department officials are in the process of laying the groundwork for the creation of a new special operations component command that will support the newly-minted U.S. Africa Command, DOD’s irregular warfare chief tells Inside the Pentagon.
Assistant Defense Secretary for Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities Michael Vickers said the new Special Operations Command-Africa is in the works and is likely to be fully stood up after the overall organizational structure for AFRICOM is finalized.
“My understanding is that there will be a Special Operations Command-Africa. It would be an appropriate component of Africa Command, but the general view is that [special operations forces] will follow the command,” Vickers said during a Nov. 13 interview at the Pentagon. “It is an integral component, but we are going to stand up [AFRICOM] first and SOCAFRICA will kind of follow in.”
It is unclear as to whether or not the new SOCAFRICA component command will consist of SOF personnel pooled from special forces units at U.S. European Command or U.S. Central Command.
At press time (Nov. 14) representatives from AFRICOM’s temporary headquarters at EUCOM in Stuttgart, Germany, could not be reached for comment regarding personnel and organizational details of SOCAFRICA.
Planning for the new SOF component command comes at a time when SOCOM is planning to increase its operational component by one-third over the next five years.
Vickers said each of the five active duty Special Forces Groups within SOCOM will be increased by one battalion, beginning with the 5th Special Forces Group at Ft. Campbell, KY in fiscal year 2008. The final battalion will be added sometime in FY-12 or FY-13. Overall, the number of SOF operational battalions will increase from 15 to 20.
He added that subsequent personnel increases are also slated for SOCOM’s psychological operations and civil affairs units as well. “Significant elements of the operational force are actually increasing,” Vickers said.
However, SOF personnel attached to SOCAFRICA will not be based at any one of the five potential sites on the African continent that will house AFRICOM’s regional headquarters, Vickers said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whelan, told ITP during an Oct. 9 interview that U.S. officials have begun paring down a list of African nations in five regions across the continent that could host parts of the new U.S. Africa Command (ITP, Oct. 11, p1.)
Declining to identify which African nations are on that list, Whelan said the locations selected will house “a fairly small staff” of roughly 10 to 20 command personnel at five U.S. bases in northern, southern, eastern, western and central Africa. Collectively, the selected locations will form AFRICOM’s permanent headquarters.
Noting that plans for AFRICOM’s headquarters do not include basing combat forces on the African continent, Whelan said the U.S. military footprint “will probably be relatively small.”
DOD officials are expected to have the five regional locations in Africa identified by October 2008.
While the stand up of SOCAFRICA could conceivably take place shortly after that tentative October time line, internal discussions over the component command’s creation had begun earlier this year.
Rear Adm. William McRaven, head of Special Operations Command Europe, told sister publication Inside the Navy that preliminary discussions over SOCAFRICA had begun as early as April. Currently, all special operations activities in the African region are overseen by SOCEUR.
In addition to SOCEUR, U.S. combatant commands in the Middle East, the Pacific and South America all have SOF contingents.
During the April interview, McRaven speculated that until SOCAFRICA became fully operational, EUCOM’s SOF contingent would continue to organize and conduct clandestine operations in the region.
-- Carlo Muñoz
November 15, 2007
Pg. 1
Senior military and Defense Department officials are in the process of laying the groundwork for the creation of a new special operations component command that will support the newly-minted U.S. Africa Command, DOD’s irregular warfare chief tells Inside the Pentagon.
Assistant Defense Secretary for Special Operations, Low-Intensity Conflict and Interdependent Capabilities Michael Vickers said the new Special Operations Command-Africa is in the works and is likely to be fully stood up after the overall organizational structure for AFRICOM is finalized.
“My understanding is that there will be a Special Operations Command-Africa. It would be an appropriate component of Africa Command, but the general view is that [special operations forces] will follow the command,” Vickers said during a Nov. 13 interview at the Pentagon. “It is an integral component, but we are going to stand up [AFRICOM] first and SOCAFRICA will kind of follow in.”
It is unclear as to whether or not the new SOCAFRICA component command will consist of SOF personnel pooled from special forces units at U.S. European Command or U.S. Central Command.
At press time (Nov. 14) representatives from AFRICOM’s temporary headquarters at EUCOM in Stuttgart, Germany, could not be reached for comment regarding personnel and organizational details of SOCAFRICA.
Planning for the new SOF component command comes at a time when SOCOM is planning to increase its operational component by one-third over the next five years.
Vickers said each of the five active duty Special Forces Groups within SOCOM will be increased by one battalion, beginning with the 5th Special Forces Group at Ft. Campbell, KY in fiscal year 2008. The final battalion will be added sometime in FY-12 or FY-13. Overall, the number of SOF operational battalions will increase from 15 to 20.
He added that subsequent personnel increases are also slated for SOCOM’s psychological operations and civil affairs units as well. “Significant elements of the operational force are actually increasing,” Vickers said.
However, SOF personnel attached to SOCAFRICA will not be based at any one of the five potential sites on the African continent that will house AFRICOM’s regional headquarters, Vickers said.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs Theresa Whelan, told ITP during an Oct. 9 interview that U.S. officials have begun paring down a list of African nations in five regions across the continent that could host parts of the new U.S. Africa Command (ITP, Oct. 11, p1.)
Declining to identify which African nations are on that list, Whelan said the locations selected will house “a fairly small staff” of roughly 10 to 20 command personnel at five U.S. bases in northern, southern, eastern, western and central Africa. Collectively, the selected locations will form AFRICOM’s permanent headquarters.
Noting that plans for AFRICOM’s headquarters do not include basing combat forces on the African continent, Whelan said the U.S. military footprint “will probably be relatively small.”
DOD officials are expected to have the five regional locations in Africa identified by October 2008.
While the stand up of SOCAFRICA could conceivably take place shortly after that tentative October time line, internal discussions over the component command’s creation had begun earlier this year.
Rear Adm. William McRaven, head of Special Operations Command Europe, told sister publication Inside the Navy that preliminary discussions over SOCAFRICA had begun as early as April. Currently, all special operations activities in the African region are overseen by SOCEUR.
In addition to SOCEUR, U.S. combatant commands in the Middle East, the Pacific and South America all have SOF contingents.
During the April interview, McRaven speculated that until SOCAFRICA became fully operational, EUCOM’s SOF contingent would continue to organize and conduct clandestine operations in the region.
-- Carlo Muñoz