First AFRICOM air chief looks to future - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

First AFRICOM air chief looks to future

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Maj. Gen. Ronald Ladnier faced a gargantuan task after he left his command at U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Detachment 5: Stand up a numbered Air Force and the air component for U.S. Africa Command from scratch.

Ladnier got the job done, though it seemed at times like, as he described it, putting out a fire without any firemen.

Seventeenth Air Force and U.S. Air Forces Africa mark their second year in September, a milestone that Ladnier will note from back in the U.S. The two-star is set to officially wrap up his 33-year career Sept. 1 but will leave Germany later this summer.

Before his successor, Maj. Gen. (Select) Margaret Woodward, now vice commander of the 18th Air Force, takes over, Ladnier sat down with Air Force Times in his office here to reflect on what it took to stand up U.S. Air Forces Africa and what its future holds.

Q What will you remember most as the first commander of U.S. Air Forces Africa?

A Probably the biggest point is how fast we stood up. When I showed up, our first major challenge was how to buy pencils. Today, we’re talking about how can we help the Nigerian military perform their role better, how can we help the South Africans, how can we engage with Morocco and Ethiopia and Rwanda — so it is very different from where we started….

The second biggest thing that stands out in my mind is how proud I am of my airmen. And you probably hear that everywhere you go, but this is why it is different here: When the building is on fire, you do not go out and interview people and ask who has the specialty of a fireman. You say, “The building is on fire. You go do this and you do this and this.”

When we stood up, we had to do a lot of that because we didn’t have the exact person we may have needed from Day One, and so our airmen said, “Sure. I don’t have the depth of experience in that area, butI am willing to work at it.” And what I have seen was folks rose to the occasion. Young folks took on responsibilities that might be reserved for more senior people, and some people took on responsibilities that weren’t in their area of expertise at all, and the results have been good.

Q What will it take or how far off is it before U.S. Air Forces Africa has assigned forces?

A We do have a request in for a certain number of people to be assigned. I think the initial number is 67 additional people and then that number increases over the years.

I can’t speak to how our requirement racks and stacks in the overall list of priorities for the Department of Defense, but we see a requirement and we have submitted a requirement, so we are just going to have to see if there’s funding, and you know how tough the current climate is.

Q What effect does the current budget climate have on a young numbered Air Force such as U.S. Air Forces Africa?

The entire military feels the pressure to be as effective as possible while saving resources when possible. … 17th Air Force is no different. We want to give the biggest bang for our buck, and we want to accomplish as much as we can with the resources we have.

If you are thinking about a lean model to get the most bang for your buck, I think 17th Air Force is a good model to look at. We are not large. We borrow — if I can use that term — forces from other commanders to do things for a short period of time and then we release them to go back to their home unit.

Q What capabilities does U.S. Air Forces Africa’s new air operations center bring, and how will that help the African continent?

A A good segue from the last discussion: To get the most out of your resources, you have to have good command and control. That’s what our AOC brings — good command and control. What is exciting to underscore is that we have seen our activities increase about 300 percent. So we just think the AOC is going to be a lot busier. When you look at all the missions going on there, humanitarian relief is required, evacuation if that is required, movement of peacekeepers, anti-terrorism, anti-piracy, the list goes on and on. So if something is required, you do that, and everything that we have seen is that those activities are increasing.

Q Why send airmen to train African forces?

We don’t do up-and-up training because that is a different process. But we do a lot of familiarization training. Using our officers and NCOs to do familiarization training on the continent is huge for a couple of reasons. They are not getting that from anywhere else so in many cases — and they are hungry to do more for their country — they just don’t have the skill, they don’t have the exposure.

The second huge benefit is when they see our NCOs and our young officers, they go: “Holy smoke, that is what I call a professional military,” so we are a good example. When we go out and about, there is no one who is not impressed by our NCOs.

And by the way, women are not everywhere in African militaries, so when I send a female NCO or female officer they say, “Wow, this person really knows her stuff.” That is a great example. Not only the work they do, but the example they set goes to the heart of what we do.

Q What place do the light-attack and light-cargo aircraft have in Africa?

A Whatever airplane they choose, we think there is a big role in Africa. You do not see any sophisticated fighters on the continent.

What you do see is the single-engine, twin-engine prop throughout the continent. So if we could come into town and work with African militaries and African air forces on those same aircraft — and just through that work — we are going to develop a closer relationship and partnership. And by the way, that they want those same aircraft, it is their choice, of course, I think many of those aircraft are better suited to their needs. … If an African air force has four airplanes, they probably don’t need to buy four F-16s. Maybe something small like a twin-engine or like a light-attack aircraft is what they need, and that is a lot more appropriate, and they will be a lot more successful with that aircraft. So I’m excited about both of those airframes and what they might allow us to do in Africa.

Q: Do you have a preference which airframe is chosen? A: We are not part of the source selection but we have folks in our headquarters that have lots of experience in building partnership capacity so they bring that and will well represent us.

Q What role do contingency response groups have with U.S. Air Forces Africa and should 17th Air Force have one assigned to it?

A We sort of touched on earlier that our whole model is based on borrowing forces for a specific need and a CRG is about supporting that need. So if we have something pop up in a contingency perspective, then we request those folks. We have the 435th here at Ramstein. It could also be the 621st CRG at [Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J..] But in either case, they will come and build that pipeline to come in and bring mobility forces or humanitarian relief or whatever the crisis of the moment is. They have been doing that and they have a great history doing that so they will continue.

Now, the exciting development — in addition to that great work — is they are looking at how we can use these folks to build partnership capacity in Africa. I mean they represent a great cross section of specialties. Anywhere from airfield security to repair to air traffic control, the list goes on and on. How can we borrow those people to best help build partnership capacity? So some CRGs are looking at acquiring more manpower positions to support exactly that so I am excited to see that.

Q How have requests from African militaries developed since you stood up?

A Once we talk about what 17th Air Force is about, they go: “Oh, that is not what we had heard. That is not what we thought. Yes, we would love to work with you.” So, the more we get out and the more we open the door by senior leaders visiting African leaders, the more we get requests for things like air crew tactics, aircraft maintenance, air field security, air traffic control, medical response, logistics, supply chain maintenance, intelligence. How do you collect and how do you work that process in intelligence gathering? We do all that in familiarization training and we are getting more demands for that. I think we just needed to get out and talk to those leaders, and once they understood what we were about, they were a lot more receptive to us.

Q How have those perceptions changed about AFRICOM?

A First of all, the United States is sort of a 500-pound gorilla, so people worry when we come to town. In the worst cases, people worry that we are coming to take over their country. Some think we want to build a lot of bases to launch a war in another area. Those are the biggest misconceptions. Truth is, we meet a lot of African militaries and ... they want to do good things for their country. They want to protect their citizens. What they may lack is the familiarization and that training we talked about or they lack resources, and in both cases, we can help some with that. So if we can help make their military more successful, maybe we can help stability in that country. And if we can help stability, then maybe that will help with economic development, and with economic development, you can beget a better quality of life and ignore a tendency toward conflict.

You look at the number of people who die here in Africa, you can’t help but look to help.

Q As those walls come down, does it provide the possibility of establishing AFRICOM’s headquarters on the continent?

A I know of no plans to do that. What I would offer, I would say what regional commands are outside the United States? What headquarters?

Q U.S. Forces in Europe is based in Europe.

A That is because we have obligations to NATO. AFRICOM is here so we’ll set that aside. Southern Command is in the United States. Central Command and Pacific Command are all on U.S. soil. So to me, if we just followed that logic, AFRICOM would move back to the United States. … Doesn’t that just make sense?

Q Does it still make sense to have 17th Air Force at Ramstein and AFRICOM headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany?

A I’ll let you ask AFRICOM if it makes sense for them to be in Germany, but I think for 17th Air Force it does make sense for us to be here because there is some support structure here that I live off of. If we move somewhere closer to the continent, that would represent a greater investment that we might not have. So it makes sense right now to stay here at Ramstein.

Q Has South Africa reached out to U.S. Air Forces Africa for help with the World Cup?

A Let me say it this way. Any country that comes to the United States and says we would like to work with you on any issue then in most cases we are willing to do that. If we share values and we share interests then we will do that. In many cases, countries have plenty of capability. They may just have a little gap here and a little gap there that we might help them with.

QWhat effect will the Volunteer Africa program have on an airman’s career?

A We wanted to include the commander in that process, they have to sign off on it, because there are other considerations. I don’t know if career is one of them, but how about the manpower? How stressed is the unit.? If you are stressed, you don’t want to send blank number of people to do extracurricular activities. You don’t want to send people off when there is something else they could be doing. And that’s why we keep the commander in the process. However, if there is a spare capacity somewhere, then our volunteer initiative will hopefully capture that, and that is what we are interested in. We don’t want to have anyone work harder than anyone else. We don’t want to have a negative impact on their life or career, but there is excess capacity on the small scales.

Q Is there anything you would do differently as the commander of 17th Air Force?

A I am probably in the minority when I say this, but no, I would not. The reason why is that we had a huge, huge challenge standing up 17th Air Force and we did what we had to do and we got the most out of our people. Our airmen rose to the occasion. Ë