Sahel-Sahara-report

Across North and West Africa, the capacity to protect
US assets is provided by some 800 AFRICOM-aligned
US Marines in the Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground
Task Force (SP-MAGTF) Africa. This force is based
140 km north of Africa at Morón Air Base in southern
Spain. Since May 2014 a 180-strong detachment has
been based at the US Naval Air Station Sigonella in
Sicily, within easier range of Libya and Tunisia 53 . This
was used on 26 July 2014 to evacuate all US personnel
from the Embassy in Tripoli. This operation reportedly
involved at least seven aircraft, comprising three F-16
fighter aircraft (flying from Aviano air base, northeast
Italy), two refuelling aircraft (one flying from RAF
Mildenhall in the UK) as well as Marine transport aircraft
from Sigonella and an unspecified number of UAVs 54 .
According to an April 2014 article in the Marine Corps
Times, the Corps has plans to relocate an additional
detachment to coastal West Africa 55 . Dakar, Senegal,
already home to a French base and used by UK forces
for interventions in Sierra Leone (2000) and Mali (2013,
aircraft only), may be the preference and received a
SP-MAGTF flight in November 2013 56 . Other locations
along the Gulf of Guinea, such as Accra, which
received a visit from SP-MAGTF in May 2014, are
also possible 57 . The US House Committee on Armed
Services reported in May 2014 that it was concerned
that AFRICOM did not have sufficient resources to
shoulder its “New Normal” requirements in many African
“high risk, high threat” environments 58 . This appears to
be directed at West Africa, where most capitals are over
3,000 km (or 7 hours flying time) from either Morón,
Sigonella or Djibouti. The US Senate was more gungho
in passing the National Defense Authorization Act
the following month, expressing its concern about the
ISR and other resources available to “New Normal”
response teams and stating that:
“the Department of Defense should posture forces
forward and achieve the associated basing and access
agreements to support such forces across the Continent
of Africa in order to meet the “New Normal” and general
mission requirements in the area of responsibility of
United States Africa Command.” 59
The technological means by which the “New Normal”
is achieved is a partnership between three systems:
the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor vertical landing
aircraft, the Lockheed Martin KC-130J in-flight refuelling
and transport aircraft, and medium altitude long
endurance (MALE) UAVs such as the MQ-9 Predator 60 .
With in-flight refuelling, MV-22s can transport Marines
over long distance at high speeds before landing or
hovering anywhere that a short-range helicopter could.
By these means the US Marine Corps has a solution
to the traditional problem of littoral warfare – how to
deliver troops further inland than the normal helicopterrange
from a ship. A network of “lily pad” basing
agreements or “cooperative security locations” as the
US has established across Africa would further facilitate
such actions.
However, the implications of the “New Normal” are far
from clear. US diplomatic facilities are sovereign US
territory and attacks on them would provide a relatively
clear rationale for the US to intervene to protect its
citizens and assets. But what about protecting US
citizens more broadly or US commercial interests
Experience of French interventions in Africa since the
1960s suggests that once special or commando forces
are established in-region or in-country, the temptation
to use them to overthrow or constrain governments
threatening to external interests can be very strong.
Other NATO Special Forces
Defense website, 03 January 2014, http://www.defense.gov/
news/newsarticle.aspxid=121429
53 John Vandiver, ‘US crisis response Marines
mobilized for North Africa threat’, Stars and Stripes, 14
May 2014, http://www.stripes.com/news/us-crisis-responsemarines-mobilized-for-north-africa-threat-1.282966
54 Andrew deGrandpre and Jeff Schogol, ‘New details
emerge on Libya embassy evacuation’, Military Times, 26
July 2014, http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20140726/
NEWS08/307260049
55 Hope Hodge Seck, ‘Corps wants crisis response
unit in western Africa’, Marine Corps Times, 12 April 2014,
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140412/
NEWS08/304120026
56 Capt. Sharon A. Hyland, ‘Marines conduct longrange
flight into Senegal’, AFRICOM website, 22 November
2013, http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/article/11497/
marines-conduct-long-range-flight-into-senegal
57 Marine Forces Europe and Africa, ‘Ghana receives
visit from US Marines’ crisis response unit’, Marines,
12 May 2014, http://www.marforeur.marines.mil/News/
NewsArticleDisplay/tabid/7617/Article/164846/ghanareceives-visit-from-us-marines-crisis-response-unit.aspx
58 House of Representatives Committee on Armed
Services, Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, Report 113-446, p.
270.
Several other NATO member states have deployed
special forces in the Sahel-Sahara since 2013, with
at least two of them in frontline operations. These
are France and the UK, the two European states with
special forces on the ground (alongside US and Qatari
operatives) in Libya during the 2011 aerial intervention
there. Netherlands special forces operate in Mali within
the mandate and under the command of MINUSMA.
France relies increasingly on special forces in its
operations in the Sahel-Sahara, especially in its search
and destroy operations in northern Mali. Indeed, its
repositioning to many smaller bases or forts under
Opération Barkhane relies on small units of airmobile
special forces that can be rapidly and flexibly
redeployed 61 .
59 H.R.4435 - Howard P. “Buck” McKeon National
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, p.670, Sec.
1261
60 James K. Sanborn, ‘Corps pins its future on the
multi-mission KC-130J Super Hercules’, Marine Corps
Times, 19 May 2014, ‘http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/
article/20140519/NEWS/305190028/Corps-pins-its-futuremulti-mission-KC-130J-Super-Hercules
61 Olivier Fourt and Véronique Barral, ‘Infographie :
14 From New Frontier to New Normal: Counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel-Sahara