AFRICOM is losing assets to other theaters with higher priority:
The Pentagon is mulling plans to wind down special operations missions on the African continent and reassign troops to other, more in-demand regions.
The plans, submitted by a top U.S. military commander, align with the Trump administration’s strategy to focus on near-peer threats from countries like China and Russia.
With fewer special forces on the ground, potentially, it will be more important to have mobility to move the special forces and other forces around the vast continent, and gain an element of surprise.
These special forces would reinforce non-special forces, likely security assistance brigade (SAB) forces training host nation troops, for specific missions.
Certainly, the special forces can be flown around between land air bases. But there is still sensitivity to American forces on the continent in any "permanent" fashion.
A mobile force at sea in modularized auxiliary cruisers capable of strike, air, infantry, and special forces operations would be a great help in mobility and the element of surprise--and keeping the footprint in Africa as small as possible.
