Africom builds logistics services for Africa

   The U.S. military’s Africa Command (Africom) is making good on efforts to assist African country partners in developing logistics and security-related capabilities.
   In specific, Africom is setting up logistics reporting structures that it hopes will soon be applied to aircraft, vehicles, and troops, but said meanwhile can be applied to other government operations such as customs declarations, port security, and other resource optimizations. The command is responsible for U.S. military operations and military relations with 53 African nations, covering all of the continent except Egypt.
   Training is currently focused on learning how to deploy equipment and troops, how to sustain both with goods and supplies, and how to optimize and move major resources and cargo in general.
   The next set of trainings for the countries will revolve around air-cargo loading, delivery, protections, and support. Countries and company partners will largely focus on how to palletize their cargo, design a load plan, and prepare rolling stock programs.
   Eventually the African countries will participate in the Partnership for Integrated Logistics Operations and Tactics pilot, which will take these previous lessons and apply them in battle deployment and other related operations.
   The U.S. Air Force in Africa also conducts a training program called Logmat (Logistics Management Assistance Team), which helps these countries develop aircraft maintenance plans and logistics systems required to support them, but said the training will come with logistics support centers that can be adapted for a variety of non-warfare purposes. One goal of Logmat is to create a unified logistics supply chain covering multiple countries on the African continent, similar to single-window customs operations that are already in place in some areas. – Geoff Whiting