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<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"> <font
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href="https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/">https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">U.S. Military Is Building a $100 Million
Drone Base in Africa</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Nick Turset@nickturse -
September 29, 2016<br>
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xml:base="https://theintercept.com/2016/09/29/u-s-military-is-building-a-100-million-drone-base-in-africa/">
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<p><u>From high above</u>, Agadez almost blends into the
cocoa-colored wasteland that surrounds it. Only when you
descend farther can you make out a city that curves
around an airfield before fading into the desert. Once a
nexus for camel caravans <a
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/agadez-traffickers-profit-from-movement-through-niger-to-libya-1437002559">hauling</a>
tea and salt across the Sahara, Agadez is now a West
African paradise for people smugglers and a way station
for refugees and <a
href="http://www.newsweek.com/why-niger-west-africas-people-smuggling-hub-471600">migrants</a>
intent on reaching Europe’s shores by any means
necessary.</p>
<div class="img-wrap align-right width-fixed"><a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115803-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-1.html"><img
class="alignright wp-image-87921 size-large"
src="cid:part4.40B8E719.F8AB10DC@freedomarchives.org"
alt="agadez-doc_edit-tint" height="1024" width="797"></a>
<p class="caption source pullright">Document: U.S.
Africa Command</p>
</div>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">Africans
</p>
<a
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/agadez-traffickers-profit-from-movement-through-niger-to-libya-1437002559">fleeing</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
unrest and poverty are not, however, the only foreigners
making their way to this town in the center of Niger.
U.S. military documents reveal new information about an
American drone base under construction on the outskirts
of the city. The long-planned project — considered the
most important U.S. military construction effort in
Africa, according to formerly secret files obtained by
The Intercept through the Freedom of Information Act —
is slated to cost $100 million, and is just one of a
number of recent American military initiatives in the </p>
<a
href="http://www.newsweek.com/why-niger-west-africas-people-smuggling-hub-471600">impoverished</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
nation.</p>
<p>The base is the latest sign, experts say, of an
ever-increasing emphasis on counterterror operations in
the north and west of the continent. As the only country
in the region willing to allow a U.S. base for MQ-9
Reapers — a newer, larger, and potentially more lethal
model than the venerable Predator drone — Niger has
positioned itself to be the key regional hub for U.S.
military operations, with Agadez serving as the premier
outpost for launching intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance missions against a plethora of terror
groups.</p>
<p>For years, the U.S. operated from an air base in
Niamey, Niger’s capital, but in early 2014, Capt. Rick
Cook, then chief of U.S. Africa Command’s Engineer
Division, mentioned the potential for a new
“semi-permanent … base-like facility” in Niger. That
September, the Washington Post’s Craig Whitlock exposed
plans to base drones at Agadez. Within days, the U.S.
Embassy in Niamey announced that AFRICOM was, indeed,
“assessing the possibility of establishing a temporary,
expeditionary contingency support location” there. The
outpost, according to the communiqué, “presents an
attractive option from which to base ISR (Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) assets given its
proximity to the threats in the region and the
complexity of operating with the vast distance of
African geography.”</p>
<p>Air Force documents submitted to Congress in 2015 <a
href="http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/Portals/84/documents/FY16/AFD-150130-009.pdf?ver=2016-08-24-100128-300">note</a>
that the U.S. “negotiated an agreement with the
government of Niger to allow for the construction of a
new runway and all associated pavements, facilities, and
infrastructure adjacent to the Niger Armed Force’s Base
Aerienne 201 (Airbase 201) south of the city of Agadez.”
When the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal
year 2016 was introduced last April, embedded in it was
a $50 million request for the construction of an
“airfield and base camp at Agadez, Niger … to support
operations in western Africa.” When President Obama
signed the defense bill, that sum was <a
href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1356/text?q=%7b%22search%22%3A%5b%22agadez%22%5d%7d&resultIndex=4">authorized</a>.</p>
<p>Reporting by The Intercept found the true cost to be
double that sum. In addition to the $50 million to
“construct Air Base 201,” another $38 million in
operation and maintenance (O&M) funds was slated to
be spent “to support troop labor and ancillary
equipment,” according to a second set of undated,
heavily redacted, formerly secret documents obtained
from U.S. Africa Command by The Intercept. But the $38
million O&M price tag — for expenses like fuel and
troops’ per diem — has already jumped to $50 million,
according to new figures provided by the Pentagon, while
sustainment costs are now projected at $12.8 million per
year.<br>
</p>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
The files obtained by The Intercept attest to the
importance of Agadez for future missions by drones, also
known as remotely piloted aircraft or RPAs. “</p>
<a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115684-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-2.html">The
top MILCON</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
[military construction] project for USAFRICOM is located
in Agadez, Niger to construct a C-17 and MQ-9 capable
airfield,” reads a 2015 planning document. “</p>
<a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115722-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-3.html">RPA
presence in NW Africa</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
supports operations against seven [Department of
State]-designated foreign terrorist organizations.
Moving operations to Agadez aligns persistent ISR to
current and emerging threats over Niger and Chad,
supports French regionalization and extends range to
cover Libya and Nigeria.”</p>
<p>The Pentagon is tight-lipped about the outpost,
however.</p>
<p>“Due to operational security considerations, we don’t
release details on numbers of personnel or specific
missions or locations, including information regarding
the Nigerien military air base located in Agadez,”
Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Michelle L. Baldanza told
The Intercept in an email, stressing that drones are not
yet flying from the outpost. However, the declassified
documents say construction will be completed next year.</p>
<p>The documents offer <a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115803-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-1.html">further
details</a>, including plans for a 1,830-meter paved
asphalt runway capable of supporting C-17 cargo aircraft
and “miscellaneous light and medium load aircraft”; a
17,458-square-meter parking apron and taxiway for “light
load ISR aircraft”; and the installation of “three 140’
x 140’ relocatable fabric tension aircraft hangars”; as
well as all the standard infrastructure for troops,
including “force protection” measures like barriers,
fences, and an “Entry Control Point.”</p>
<p>While AFRICOM failed to respond to requests for
information about the projects, a May 2016 satellite
photo of the site provides a status report. “The image
shows that the main runway … has been repaved,” said Dan
Gettinger, the co-founder and co-director of the Center
for the Study of the Drone at Bard College and author of
a <a
href="http://dronecenter.bard.edu/how-to-hunt-for-drones/">guide</a>
to identifying drone bases from satellite imagery. “Near
the runway there’s a structure that appears to be a
future hangar, though it’s still under construction.
There’s also a new dirt road that runs a fair distance
from the runway to a U.S. base that’s enclosed with a
perimeter wall and there are a number of shelters there
for personnel as well as a command center. All the
things that you’d expect on a base.”</p>
<div class="img-wrap align-bleed width-auto"><img
class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-88126"
src="cid:part14.2FA298FC.39AC1C2B@freedomarchives.org"
alt="satellite-date-2">
<p class="caption overlayed">Satellite images of site of
U.S. drone base outside Agadez, Niger.</p>
<p class="caption source">Photo: Google Earth</p>
</div>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">According
to the documents, Niger was the “</p>
<a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115803-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-1.html">only
country</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled"> in
NW Africa willing to allow basing of MQ-9s,” the larger,
newer cousins of the Predator drone. The documents went
on to </p>
<a
href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3115722-Niger-Drone-Base-Page-3.html">note</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">:
“President expressed willingness to support armed RPAs.”</p>
<p>The U.S. military activity in Niger is not isolated.
“There’s a trend toward greater engagement and a more
permanent presence in West Africa — the Maghreb and the
Sahel,” noted Adam Moore of the department of geography
at the University of California in Los Angeles and the
co-author of an <a
href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2016.1160060">academic
study</a> of the U.S. military’s presence in Africa.</p>
<p>Since 9/11, in fact, the United States has poured vast
amounts of military aid into the region. In 2002, for
example, the State Department launched a
counterterrorism program — known as the Pan-Sahel
Initiative, which later became the Trans-Sahara
Counterterrorism Partnership (TSCTP) — to assist the
militaries of Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger. Between
2009 and 2013 alone, the U.S. <a
href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiu88LO-8_JAhWHqB4KHcsbB1YQFghKMAc&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gao.gov%2Fassets%2F670%2F664337.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHhWyEg8qLY-TiVAhKq5Og2wSqNcw&bvm=bv.109395566,d.eWE">allocated</a>
$288 million in TSCTP funding, according to a 2014
report by the Government Accountability Office. Niger
was one of the top three recipients, netting more than
$30 million.<br>
</p>
<div class="img-wrap align-center width-fixed"><a
href="https://prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/09/Niger3.png"><img
class="aligncenter size-article-large
wp-image-87794"
src="cid:part19.D72DC85F.3E82A256@freedomarchives.org"
alt="Niger3"></a>
<p class="caption">Niger and neighboring countries.</p>
<p class="caption source pullright">Image: The Intercept
</p>
</div>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
U.S. special operations forces </p>
<a
href="http://www.africom.mil/Newsroom/Article/11773/african-led-exercise-flintlock-kicks-off-in-niger">regularly</a><a
href="http://www.africom.mil/newsroom/article/25269/flintlock-15-wraps-up-in-ndjamena-chad">train</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
with Niger’s army and the U.S. has </p>
<a
href="http://www.africom.mil/newsroom/article/11021/niger-gets-new-planes-and-trucks-through-us-security-cooperation-programs">transferred</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
millions of dollars’ worth of planes, trucks, and other
gear to that impoverished nation. In a 2015 report to
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on
Africa and Global Health, Lauren Ploch Blanchard of the
Congressional Research Service noted that since 2006
Niger had received more than $82 million in assistance
through the Department of Defense’s Global Train and
Equip program.</p>
<p>“In close coordination with partner militaries in West
Africa, including Niger, USAFRICOM supports a range of
security and capacity building efforts in the greater
Sahelian region,” Baldanza told The Intercept. “These
efforts support U.S. diplomatic and national security
objectives and are designed to strengthen relationships
with African partners, promote stability and security,
and enable our African partners to address their
security threats.”<br>
</p>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
Stability and security have, however, proved elusive. In
2010, for example, a military junta </p>
<a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/world/africa/20niger.html?_r=0">overthrew</a>
<p style="display: inline;" class="readability-styled">
Niger’s president as he attempted to extend his rule. In
fact, all the original members of the Pan-Sahel
Initiative have fallen victim to military uprisings.
Chad saw attempted coups in 2006 and 2013, members of
Mauritania’s military overthrew the government in 2005
and again in 2008, and a U.S.-trained military officer
toppled the democratically elected president of Mali in
2012.</p>
<p>The region, relatively <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2015/11/20/in-mali-and-rest-of-africa-the-u-s-military-fights-a-hidden-war/">free</a>
of transnational terror threats in 2001, is now beset by
<a
href="https://www.thecable.ng/path-of-a-ruthless-killer-all-boko-haram-deaths-in-2015">regular
attacks</a> from Boko Haram, a once-tiny, <a
href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-training-niger-army-to-resist-boko-haram/3026340.html">nonviolent</a>,
Islamist sect from Nigeria that has since pledged
allegiance to the Islamic State and threatens the
stability of not only its homeland but also Cameroon,
Chad, and Niger. And Boko Haram is just one of 17
militant groups now menacing the region, <a
href="https://theintercept.com/2016/07/11/in-africa-u-s-military-sees-enemies-everywhere/">according</a>
to the Defense Department’s Africa Center for Strategic
Studies.</p>
<p>Drones have long been integral to U.S. efforts in
Niger. In 2012, according to the files obtained by The
Intercept, Niger agreed to host U.S. drones in Niamey,
the capital, on the condition that operations would
eventually be shifted to a more remote military base in
Agadez.</p>
<p>In February 2013, the U.S. began flying Predator drones
out of the capital. Later in the spring, an AFRICOM
spokesperson revealed that U.S. air operations there
were providing “support for intelligence collection with
French forces conducting operations in Mali and with
other partners in the region.” The Air Force recently
announced plans to upgrade shower and latrine facilities
at Niamey “to serve a steady state of 200 to 250
personnel a day.”</p>
<p>“The U.S. shares that base with France,” said
Gettinger. The base in Niamey, he explained, “is
strategically important simply because to the north
there’s Mali and the threat posed by al Qaeda-linked
groups, including al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. … To
the south you have Nigeria and Boko Haram, so there’s
lots of demand for ISR capabilities.” At Agadez, he
noted, the U.S. doesn’t need to share facilities with
the French military or commercial aircraft. And it is,
he said, “more strategically located than Niamey.”</p>
<p>As UCLA’s Moore puts it: “The recent trajectory of
sites and money suggests that Niger is becoming, after
Djibouti, the second most important country for U.S.
military counterterrorism operations on the continent.”</p>
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