Partnerships drive mission, support in Africa

Photo By Heather Athey | Navy Vice Adm. Joe Leidig (left), deputy commander for military operations, U.S. Africa Command, and Defense Logistics Agency Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson sign a performance-based agreement between the supply agency and the regional command, Sept. 15, at USAFRICOM Headquarters, in Stuttgart, Germany.  

GERMANY

09.16.2010

Story by Heather Athey 

Defense Logistics Agency   

The director of the Defense Logistics Agency and U.S. Africa Command’s deputy commander for military operations signed a formal partnership agreement between the two organizations, Sept. 15.

By signing the performance-based agreement, Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson and Navy Vice Adm. Joe Leidig outlined a framework for coordinating and aligning DLA resources in support of USAFRICOM’s missions. Based on the outlined roles, responsibilities and objectives, officials said, the document sets expectations for both sides and highlights key partnering efforts.

But the implications of the partnership agreement reach far beyond the two organizations. Covering an operating area of 53 countries, USAFRICOM has a distinct set of logistics challenges to contend with, said Marine Maj. Gen. Kenneth Glueck, the command’s director for operations and logistics.

“Everything is three times harder to transport and three times more expensive in Africa,” he said. “And only 47 African nations have U.S. embassies.”

As a relatively young command, USAFRICOM will take about five years to reach maturity, but Glueck said the performance-based agreement with DLA is a positive step toward solidifying the relationship and uncovering yet unknown challenges.

Prior to signing the agreement, the agency had already colocated its DLA Europe and Africa team with USAFRICOM headquarters and embedded planners on the command’s staff. Those relationships helped create a joint logistics enterprise, said Navy Capt. Brian Sheppard, logistics support chief in USAFRICOM’s Operations and Logistics Directorate.

Doing business in USAFRICOM’s area of responsibility requires tremendous interagency cooperation and dialogue, because preparing to conduct operations there is an exercise in long-term planning, he explained. Lead times are long for transporting goods into certain areas of Africa, and the distances and lack of infrastructure further complicate matters.

Having that DLA presence so closely tied to the USAFRICOM team means the agency can be there at the first step in the planning process and through all the discussions to synchronize activities on behalf of warfighters, said Dennis D’Angelo, chief of USAFRICOM’s Deployment and Distribution Operations Center.

It also means relationships can be built with industry partners ahead of time, so when a situation arises and warfighters need, for example, fuel, there’s a vendor capable of supporting the requirement and meeting quality control standards, he said.

“When you build the capacity [for commerce], you build security in USAFRICOM, and that’s the ultimate goal, particularly because much of the attention is currently focused in other parts of the world,” D’Angelo said.

Command planners are also starting to stretch their legs and hold exercises outside of familiar, comfortable locations to test the strength of the logistics network they’re building, Sheppard said. Vital to that logistics network are a number of non-U.S. government entities with a presence on the continent.

“Both the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.N. have significant operations in the AOR, and the U.N. alone accounts for so many flights it qualifies as the third or fourth largest air carrier in Africa,” he said.

Part of achieving logistics success for U.S. forces operating in Africa means coordinating with these non-governmental agencies that have the experience dealing with Africa’s challenges and creating a partnership for future operations, Thompson said.

“Responding to the January earthquake in Haiti was an eye-opening experience for many in DoD because we saw organizations not well known inside the department demonstrating significant capabilities and expertise in response to this disaster,” he said.

Also key to the command’s success is working hand in glove with the U.S. State Department, whose ambassadors and embassy personnel are enduring teams on the ground in many African nations, said Army Col. Derek Smith, DLA Europe and Africa commander.

“The State Department and U.N. networks have been working in and around Africa for a long time, and the military can learn a lot from them,” he said.

The push for interagency partnership among defense agencies and organizations outside the Defense Department is mirroring the cooperation sought at the cabinet level by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said Katherine Canavan, a foreign policy advisor civilian deputy to the commander of U.S. European Command.

“Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton are working closely together to create more joint programs. State is small compared to the number of military members,” she said. “The running joke is that at about 6,700 strong, Foreign Service officers number fewer than those in the military’s bands.”

State also operates with a significantly smaller budget than DoD. But despite their small number and more limited resources, Canavan said, ambassadors ultimately decide what U.S. operations can occur within their respective areas.

In the past 18 months DLA has become more involved with the State Department as it has worked on the Northern Distribution Network, a critical series of rail, water and road links enabling transport of goods like fuel and construction materials to U.S. and NATO troops serving in Afghanistan.

Embassy support in those areas has been outstanding and yielded positive benefits for the agency in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, Thompson said, and those lessons learned have potential further use in Africa.

“Keeping the local ambassadors informed means DLA is better able to support warfighters in areas of the world where cultural sensitivities may not be widely understood,” he said. “Frankly speaking, in this area, partners share the work to achieve success.”

Success in Africa is measured one operation at a time, officials said.

“These countries need our support,” Glueck said, “and we need theirs.”

• Date Taken: 09.16.2010
• Date Posted: 09.16.2010 09:29
• Story ID: 56394
• Location: DE