3/13/2009 - MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) -- The commander of U.S. Air Forces Africa spoke about the increasingly focused role the U.S. is taking to bolster Africa's air capabilities during a March 9 visit to Air University here.
"We must invest in the future of Africa," said Maj. Gen. Ronald R. "Ron" Ladnier Jr.
The general's comments came on the same day an African Union cargo plane on a peacekeeping mission crashed in Uganda's Lake Victoria, killing 11 people on board.
Africa claims about 25 percent of air accidents in the world, while its flights account for only 4.5 percent of the world's air traffic, the general said. This challenge to Africa's air domain is indicative of much larger problems that plague the continent, from poverty and disease to continual infighting and even genocide.
The general's 17th Air Force component is one of the newest pieces in what was formerly a jigsaw puzzle of U.S. military involvement across the 11 million square-mile continent. A relatively new U.S. military regional headquarters, U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, began in 2007 to consolidate all U.S. military efforts for Africa.
The 17th Air Force, located at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, is part of U.S. Africa Command, which is headquartered about 200 kilometers away at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany.
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