Infrastructure Improvements Key to Engagement

US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa logisticians and engineers are working to improve infrastructure across the continent to support the surge in activity following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, the head of USAFE-AFAFRICA’s logistics and mission support directorate told Air Force Magazine in a recent interview at Ramstein AB, Germany. Brig. Gen. Bradley Spacy said even though the command’s permanent footprint in Europe is much smaller than it was two decades ago, its engagement is more widespread to the East and to the South, as well as in Africa. “We are smaller, but in a lot of ways more efficient,” Spacy said, noting there is a lot of value “from a logistician’?s perspective” to operations from across Europe, and his airmen are working to ensure USAFE-AFAFRICA forces can be sustained no matter where they go. “One way we do that is by helping with infrastructure,” Spacy said. USAFE-AFAFRICA is engaging with key countries and allies to make improvements to existing facilities as well as carry out new projects. “The more I can move forward, the less I have to bring with me,” he said. The European Reassurance Initiative is already helping the command “take a big leap forward” on a range of projects to this effect, he added. (See also Looking East from the September 2014 issue of Air Force Magazine.)