Four-star Marine General Michael Langley, the new commander of U.S. Africa Command (Africom), revealed two startling details about U.S. military operations in Africa during his testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee’s annual hearing on the Africom budget request on 16 March 2023. He disclosed that Africom has established a forward headquarters on the continent in addition to its main headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. When asked whether Africom might follow the model of Central Command—whose main headquarters are in Tampa, Florida, but which maintains a forward headquarters in Qatar—General Langley replied, “I can talk about that in closed session, because we do have something established to that contract.”
General Langley also directly contradicted repeated statements by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other U.S. officials that Washington does not want African countries to choose between the United States and its Sino‑Russian rivals. He explained that Washington’s actual view is that African nations “make choices, and they make the wrong choices in siding with—going with either PRC or Russia for especially lethal aid.” According to Langley, this means the United States should accelerate the delivery of American military equipment to African governments. He noted that many African leaders have expressed a desire for U.S. equipment rather than a permanent U.S. troop presence, saying, “We don’t want your boots on the ground, we want your equipment.” However, he warned that the U.S. arms‑sales program is moving too slowly, causing African partners to make “the wrong decisions.” Consequently, African governments will be judged by the company they keep—the United States, Russia, or China—and will be treated accordingly; making the “wrong choices” will have consequences.
For additional information and data, see “Biden’s FY 2024 Budget Plan for Africa: Send More Guns” at africansecurity.org. Daniel Volman, director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, D.C., is a specialist on U.S. military policy toward Africa and African security issues.
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