DoD planning 5 regional teams under AFRICOM

[unhappycamper]

DoD planning 5 regional teams under AFRICOM
By John T. Bennett - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Sep 20, 2007 5:40:35 EDT

Much of the work for U.S. Africa Command, the U.S. military’s newest geographic command, likely will be done by five teams, each deployed to and designed for a specific region of the continent.

The plans for these “regional integration teams” are still being laid, but Pentagon officials want a “split-based, tailored presence” there, not a one-size-fits-all approach that might produce dividends in one region but chaos in another, according to Defense Department documents prepared in mid-September.

One team will go to the northern, eastern, southern, central and western portions of the continent, mirroring the African Union’s five regional economic communities, the briefing documents say.

The idea is to “establish regional presence on the African continent which would facilitate appropriate interaction with existing Africa political-military organizations,” one of the Sept. 14 briefings says.

The regional teams will link to African Union organizations, “Africa stand-by force brigade headquarters (and) U.S. AID support hubs,”

Defense News obtained a copy of the DoD documents, which offer a window into the Pentagon’s planning of the much-anticipated new command.

Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/09/defense_africom_070919/


uhc comment: I thought about renaming this article, perhaps something like "School of the Africas" or "The oil boys at work", because we know what it's all about. Black gold.