Under African Skies, 2017 : CMO Remastered

Under African Skies (2017) It is early Tuesday morning, 31 January 2017. You are the four-star General Officer in command of the joint/combined United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). You left your offices at Kelly Barracks outside of Stuttgart, Germany early yesterday, and have established a forward command post at RAF Ascension Island. You report directly to the Secretary of Defense (SecDef), and your subordinate reporting commands include: HQ, US Army Africa, Vicenza, Italy; HQ, US Navy Africa, Naples, Italy; and HQ, US Air Force Africa at Ramstein AB, Germany. Some European countries have already joined the American effort. The Brits had ships moving before the U. S. Declaration of War, and have integrated into your command structure. The Dutch, Belgian and Polish forces are not ready at this early stage, and will be assigned to follow-on operations. Germany, Italy and Spain are offering bases and over-flight rights, but are not committing forces at this time. Of moderate concern, the French are already sailing into the area of operations but have indicated they are going it alone. Diplomatic channels state that France is intent on restoring national dignity, and they do not want their effort conducted under the auspices of a coalition. U. S. forces are assembling and on the move. There are two CVBG’s enroute, but won’t be in the area for three to four days. Land units are being earmarked in CONUS, and will load onto transports within two to three weeks. Some airborne tankers and strike aircraft have already been deployed to your command. The center piece of your current force structure is an Expeditionary Strike Group that was headed to the Mediterranean for training and diverted to your command. Additionally, a Special Operations capable task force of LCS’s and support ships that had been operating in the area is now assigned to you. These are welcome additions. Prior to the events leading to this war, AFRICOM had only a hospital ship providing support for the l