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.
In the Space Force’s push to increase its consumption of commercial satellite capabilities, satellite communications stands out as the template. The question now is how broadly the Space Force will look to leverage additional SATCOM providers.