Africom is moving … to Charleston?
The Defense Department’s three-year-old Africa Command (AFRICOM) has been looking for a permanent home ever since it began operating out of its current location in Stuttgart, Germany. Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed that the top contender to host AFRICOM is… Charleston, South Carolina! "Secretary Gates, I’ve been told, has instructed the Department of Defense ...
The Defense Department's three-year-old Africa Command (AFRICOM) has been looking for a permanent home ever since it began operating out of its current location in Stuttgart, Germany. Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed that the top contender to host AFRICOM is... Charleston, South Carolina!
The Defense Department’s three-year-old Africa Command (AFRICOM) has been looking for a permanent home ever since it began operating out of its current location in Stuttgart, Germany. Today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) revealed that the top contender to host AFRICOM is… Charleston, South Carolina!
"Secretary Gates, I’ve been told, has instructed the Department of Defense to look for a stateside home for Africa Command, to move you out of Stuttgart and that the leading contender, the most preferred site was Charleston Air Force Base," Graham said at today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on AFRICOM.
AFRICOM Commander Gen. Carter Ham said he wasn’t aware that Gates had chosen Charleston as the lead contender, but said he liked Charleston all the same.
"Sir, I have visited Charleston and enjoyed that visit very much," said Ham.
"Good. We would like to have you," Graham responded, reassuring the general that Gates had, in fact, chosen Charleston and that the city was ready to provide the Defense Department with all the infrastructure assistance it would need to relocate AFRICOM to South Carolina.
For those tracking the numbers, AFRICOM’s current headquarters in Stuttgart is about 800 miles from the closest point in Africa. Charleston is about 4,000 miles from the African continent.
Of course, AFRICOM wouldn’t be the first combatant command to be headquartered outside of the region it covers. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which covers the broader Middle East, is located at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Florida, although it has a huge forward operating base in Qatar. U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), which is responsible for South America and Central America, is located in Miami, relatively close to the region it covers.
But AFRICOM personnel shouldn’t start packing their bags just yet. Last month, the Charleston Business Review reported that local business leaders had been told by the Pentagon that the final decision to relocate AFRICOM had been deferred indefinitely.
In other news from the hearing, Ham who was for 12 days running the U.S. intervention in Libya stated that a stalemate in the Libya war "is now more likely," than when the conflict began. "In my personal opinion, that is not the preferred solution," Ham said.
The NATO-led coalition is still attacking regime command-and-control assets in Tripoli and is engaged in an electronic warfare effort to keep the Libyan regime off of TV and radio, he said. He added that there is no effort to kill Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, but if he happens to be killed, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Ham also said that the United States is still flying combat missions over Libya and is still using the AC-130 close air support gunship to help the Libyan rebels, despite previous administration claims that those planes would be removed from the fight.
He also stressed that there must be some negotiated ceasefire.When asked how the war in Libya will end, Ham said, "Sir, I think it does not end militarily."
UPDATE: The Virginia Pilot reports that Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner confirmed that Charleston hasn’t been chosen yet. They want AFRICOM to be based in Norfolk, VA, where Joint Forces Command, which is being closed down by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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