We at AFRICOM are grateful recipients of your association’s efforts to foster international stability through engagement, networking, and advocacy. As you foster member company growth, partnerships and outreach, government advocacy, and research and analysis, we would greatly appreciate your consideration of some of the following themes:

Africa Good versus the Gold Standard or Permanent Solution

We are an economy of force theater and our African partners are similarly limited. However, many of the industry proposals we receive don’t reflect these realities. This leads to great products being cost- and schedule-prohibitive and our prospective local partners lose out, too. We need options focused on affordability, and on ease of sustainment by our African partners.

Test bed opportunities

Our fellow combatant commands have new technology requirements to support their plans. In many cases, they don’t have good, accessible test sites. Africa does. For example, a new rapid runway repair system is movable by C-130 and easy to set up. This system chews up runways in front and lays a new runway surface in the back. Test sites are hard to find in Europe, and willing partners are few in Asia, but Africa easily offers both.

Contractor accountability

AFRICOM contracting requirements mandate that all contractors use the SPOT system to account for personnel working in Africa. Some companies struggle to make this happen. Yes, this capability is critical in the event of crisis – think the rapid Somalia pullout, or the Equatorial Guinea explosion. Companies need to get past this hurdle.

Support to crises

We need companies who are flexible and responsive to cope with the prevalence of crises on the continent.

Expeditionary operations

We require expeditionary solutions tailored to each market – think warehousing, supplies, services, and fuel transportation. Companies should be able to rapidly set up distribution operations and networks, contend with long supply lines, and leverage local capabilities without overwhelming host nations.

African federal government relations

Companies interested in supporting stability operations alongside the US military should develop relationships with local governments to deliver better options when face with emergent needs. The US can use acquisition and cross-servicing agreements to work through partner nations and leverage this commercial support. In Africa, the DoD prefers to work through partners. In turn, these partners can provide support via their own contracts. Think of this as using a CLIN on someone else’s contract.

I hope those suggestions are helpful to this audience. Though a continent of opportunity, Africa has no shortage of fragile environments requiring critical services delivered in an accountable, transparent, and ethical way. At USAFRICOM, we’re grateful and heavily reliant on partners like you seeking to advance our nation’s Development, Diplomacy, and Defense objectives consistent with American values and national interests.