The strategically important and heavily used multi-service US base in the Horn of Africa now has a safer air traffic control situation thanks to a Containerized Airport Surveillance Radar installed recently by a team of airmen from two commands. Eight 205th Engineering and Installation Squadron airmen from Will Rogers ANGB, Okla., and two members of the Air Force Flight Standards Agency from Ramstein AB, Germany, worked to install the AN/GPN-27 radar and a shelter at US Navy Base Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti. The new system, which replaces the previous deployable short-term and short-range radar, “provides a long-term, enduring air traffic control radar for a vastly improved safety impact on the local air traffic management,” SMSgt. Anthony Potter, 205 EIS superintendent and the project team chief, said. The team of airmen managed the entire process, from a site survey last November, to arranging shipment of the radar from Charleston, S.C., to installation at Djibouti, despite 125-degree heat and some equipment setbacks, Potter said in an Air Force release.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.