It’s official; the Pentagon has activated the new Africa Command, under the leadership of Army Gen. William Ward, who received Senate confirmation on Sept. 28. The initial organization will share space with US European Command at Stuttgart, Germany. The new unified command is to take full form by Sept. 30, 2008 at an as-yet unspecified location in Africa.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.