Africom Forms Military Relationship With Libya

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

STUTTGART, Germany, June 15, 2012 – Operation Odyssey Dawn, the U.S. Africa Command-led U.S. mission in Libya last year, imparted important lessons the Defense Department’s newest combatant command is applying as it welcomes a new African partner to the fold while still dealing with some of the residual challenges left by the former regime, the Africom commander said.

Army Gen. Carter F. Ham conceded during recent congressional testimony that the challenges in Libya didn’t end with the fall of Moammar Gadhafi and his dictatorship.

“There are some small pockets remaining in Libya and in other places in North Africa that were centers of foreign fighters who left North Africa, transited along various routes and ended up fighting against us and other coalition forces inside Iraq,” he told the House Armed Services Committee in February.

“There are remnants of that, and there are indications that al-Qaida senior leadership is seeking ways to reestablish those networks,” he said. “And that’s one of the challenges that lie ahead for us.”

Ham said he’s concerned about their influence on Tunisia as well as Libya as both countries attempt to establish representative governments.

“It’s very clear that extremist organizations -- notably al-Qaida, with some direction from al-Qaida’s senior leaders -- would seek to undermine that good governance that the Tunisians and the Libyans seek,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March. “And so I think that’s the real threat that is posed.”

“So I think we need to partner very closely with the security forces [and] armed forces of Tunisia and Libya to prevent the reestablishment of those networks [and] to prevent those violent extremist organizations from undermining the progress that both countries are seeking.”

Africom is forming a new military-to-military relationship with the Libyans and is working to strengthen its long-term military-to-military relationship with the Tunisians, Ham said, emphasizing the importance of close partnerships with both nations.

“I am very satisfied with the progress of the military-to-military relationship that is developing” with the new Tunisian government, he reported. “We need to sustain that.”

“And similarly, with the Libyans, we are forming a good relationship,” he continued, noting the standup of an Office of Security Cooperation at the embassy there that can help coordinate security assistance, international military education and training and other security cooperation. “So we’re moving in the right direction, but we need to sustain that effort,” he said.

Speaking with American Forces Press Service at his headquarters here, Ham said military operations in Libya drove home the point that all U.S. combatant commands including Africom must be capable of operating across the full spectrum of conflict.

“It is probably not going to be very often where Africa Command goes to the more kinetic, the more offensive operations in Africa,” he said. “But nonetheless, we have to be ready to do that if the president requires that of us.”

Africom typically conducts relatively small-scale, non-offensive missions focused on strengthening the defense capabilities of African militaries, he noted. “But there is an expectation that we must be able to do the full range of military activities.”

Operation Odyssey Dawn also reinforced that the United States won’t conduct military operations alone, Ham said. “We are always going to do them as part of some type of coalition,” he continued. “So building the processes, the mechanisms that allow us to readily incorporate the capabilities of other nations is an important aspect for us as well.”

Ham noted the United States’ long history of operating with NATO, but said it wasn’t as prepared to work side-by-side with non-NATO partners, particularly Arab countries, that joined the coalition. “We had to make sure we were postured to incorporate them very quickly,” he said. “I think that is a good lesson for us as we think about operations across Africa in the future.”

Africom’s close association with U.S. European Command, with both command headquarters here in Stuttgart, proved particularly valuable during the Libya campaign, he said.

Ham called European-based forces absolutely critical to Operation Odyssey Dawn. “Simply stated, we could not have responded on the timelines required for operations in Libya had air and maritime forces not been forward-stationed in Europe,” he said.

“Operations in Libya have truly brought U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command to a higher level of collaboration,” Ham told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “And this year, we’ll continue to work closely together to seek to more effectively address security challenges in our respective areas of responsibilities.”

The Europeans, both through NATO and through the European Union, are heavily invested in security matters in Africa, Ham told the House Armed Services Committee. “And it is our strong relationship and partnership with U.S. European Command that allows us to have access and meaningful dialogue in the planning and coordination of those activities.”

Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, the Eucom commander who testified alongside Ham, noted that the two commands have shared nautical component commanders and regularly partner in counter-piracy operations.

“We are also exploring ways that we can create efficiencies in intelligence and information sharing,” Stavridis said. “And I believe we essentially share intelligence facilities now, and there may be some ways to do even more of that.”

NATO Summit to Focus on Afghanistan, Missile Defense

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, May 14, 2012 – Afghanistan will top the agenda items at the upcoming NATO Summit in Chicago as coalition members consider an agreement on a long-term strategic partnership that promotes security and stability there, NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe reported.

“What I am hoping to see is a commitment to resourcing the Afghan national security forces post-2014,” Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis said of the May 20-21 summit, which will include the 28 NATO heads of state and government representatives from many of the 50 nations that make up the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

“I am fairly confident we will see that, and I think that will be the key to long-term success,” Stavridis said during an interview with the Pentagon Channel and American Forces Press Service.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen considers a long-term strategic partnership with Afghanistan to be a high-level goal, Stavridis told Congress in March.

“Everything I can see around the circuit on the NATO side indicates a strong willingness to go forward,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “And I believe we will have an enduring partnership between NATO and the republic of Afghanistan.”

Missile defense will be another major summit issue, the admiral said, with the announcement that the new missile defense system has reached interim operational capability. This interim system, the first phase of the new U.S.-based European Phased Adaptive Approach Missile Defense System, will be integrated with the NATO command-and-control system to begin standing up the NATO missile defense system, he said.

Looking to the future, Stavridis said he anticipates more discussion of “smart defense” -- essentially pooling capabilities in light of shrinking defense budgets confronting all the NATO members.

“As we face these financial pressures today, clearly we need to, in any alliance, come together in efficient ways so we can … generate capability for reasonable amounts of money,” he said.

Stavridis, who also commands U.S. European Command, noted missile defense as an example of financial burden-sharing that provides collective defense. Another is the Baltic air policing mission, in which NATO member nations rotate their fighter jets to defend the airspace over Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

Summit participants also will discuss progress on a new alliance ground surveillance system that will give commanders a comprehensive picture of the situation on the ground. NATO’s operation to protect civilians in Libya drove home the importance of such a system, Stavridis said. As a result, 13 allies plan to procure a variant of the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and the associated command-and-control base stations and to operate them on behalf of all NATO members, he reported.

Stavridis said he hopes the members will discuss the pooling of resources in other areas such as special operations and cyber in which pooled arrangements would benefit the alliance.

While not necessarily a top agenda item, the apparent inability of some NATO partners to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense as agreed is likely to come up during the summit. Only six members, including the United States, Great Britain and France, currently meet that goal.

Economic and fiscal pressures have caused many European states to reduce their budgets, and Stavridis expressed concern that the situation could adversely impact military readiness.

“We, the United States and its partners who are spending that amount of money, … need to keep pressure on those who are not, so they meet those minimum levels of spending,” he said.

Europe Remains Committed to Afghan Mission, Commander Says

By Lisa Daniel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – European countries strongly support continuing with the mission in Afghanistan despite violent uprisings there, and NATO is likely to continue its partnership with Afghanistan well past the end of combat operations, the alliance’s supreme allied commander for Europe said here.

Navy Adm. James G. Stavridis, who also is commander of U.S. European Command, addressed Afghanistan and NATO and U.S.-European partnerships during testimony today before the Senate Armed Services Committee and yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee.

The admiral said he sees no reason to change the strategy in Afghanistan of transitioning security responsibility to Afghan forces in response to violent uprisings that began there last week after it was learned that some U.S. forces had inadvertently burned copies of the Quran.

“As I look at the broad sweep of our strategy there, I am convinced that we should continue with transitioning Afghanistan’s security to the Afghans,” Stavridis said. “In my conversations – I’ve had many over last week or so with senior leaders in the alliance – there’s solid support on the European side to continue with current strategy.”

Stavridis noted that about 150 demonstrations had left 30 people killed and 150 wounded. “That’s significant activity, but it’s been very much diffused around the country,” he said, adding that Marine Corps Gen. John R. Allen, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has said he is pleased with Afghan security forces’ ability to contain the violence.

“If you step back and look at the larger progression in Afghanistan, I remain cautiously optimistic that we can succeed there,” the admiral said. Two years ago, when U.S. and British Marines moved into Marjah, there were 10 coalition troops to every Afghan soldier. Today, there are two Afghan soldiers for every coalition member, he said.

Stavridis said he expects Allen will lay out a “definitive track” in mid-summer for the drawdown of coalition forces. “It has to be conditions-based as we go forward,” he said.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has a “high-level goal” of signing a long-term strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan, showing NATO’s “strong willingness to go forward,” Stavridis said. “I think we will see an enduring relationship between NATO and the Republic of Afghanistan,” he added.

Stavridis told the Senators he will provide them with a classified report on the recent violence in Afghanistan, and in response to a question, said the uprisings appear to be a combination of spontaneous demonstrations and Taliban-driven activity.

The admiral also spoke about the importance of U.S.-European partnerships, noting that European countries have 40,000 troops in Afghanistan and lead operations in the Balkans. Speaking to the need for a continued U.S. presence in Europe, he said, “It does matter that we continue to have Europe as our partner of first resort.”

However, he said, he repeatedly has urged European nations to spend more on defense capabilities. The United States spends about 4.5 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, he said, and members of the European Union have pledged to spend 2 percent of each of theirs, but only some are meeting that goal, with most spending only about 1.5 percent of GDP on defense, he said.

“They should spend more, and if they would spend more, it would permit the United States to spend less,” Stavridis said. “I think the United States should press this very hard.”

Also at the hearings, the general gave his assessment of NATO’s capabilities in cyber defense. “We are in the process of catching up,” he said. “We have hard work to do in cyber.”

NATO’s progress on cyber is evident at the recently created Cyber Center of Excellence in Estonia, and in a computer response center being added in the NATO headquarters building in Brussels, the admiral said. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Georgia have had “fairly severe” cyber attacks in recent years, he noted.

Cyber defense was included in the 2010 NATO Strategic Concept, and Stavridis said he expects it to be discussed at the upcoming summit.

European governments struggle with public-private cooperation on cyber defense just as Americans do, he said. “We have more thinking and talking to do within the U.S. military structure as to the precise authorities and structures” in U.S. Cyber Command.