Niger Air Base 201, a future hub for armed drones and other aircraft, was supposed to be completed this year. The region’s difficult weather and harsh conditions are pushing completion back to the middle of 2019, officials told Air Force Times.
Air Base 201 will eventually house the U.S. armed drone mission in Niger that currently operates out of Niger’s capital, Niamey.
In the Lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia, a former Soviet-built air base called Camp Baledogle is being refurbished and converted to better handle the evolving multinational mission in the country.
Apparently African states are getting used to the idea. No doubt the jihadi threats are changing minds about the sensitivity of openly having American forces help them kill jihadis.
The ability to put bases on the continent reduces the need for my idea in Military Review for mobile bases based on container ship hulls using shipping containers to hold facilities, equipment, and weapons, which I christened The AFRICOM Queen.
Of course, one of my ideas for the modularized auxiliary cruiser was the ability to put some sets ashore for temporary land bases or missions. So now in addition to that, the ship could reinforce land bases.
And given the size of Africa, a mobile base that brings more of the littoral into range of American military power--in addition to other aspects of government assistance to African states--will always be useful.
