{"id":117176,"date":"2018-08-27T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=117176"},"modified":"2018-09-03T10:51:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T09:51:54","slug":"the-u-s-is-building-a-drone-base-in-niger-that-will-cost-more-than-280-million-by-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/08\/the-u-s-is-building-a-drone-base-in-niger-that-will-cost-more-than-280-million-by-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. Is Building a Drone Base in Niger That Will Cost More Than $280 Million by 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Air Force engineers and members of the 31st Expeditionary Red Horse squadron work on a landing strip on Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 12, 2018. Photo: Tara Todras-Whitehill\/The New York Times\/Redux<\/p><\/div>\n

21 Aug 2018 – <\/em>A U.S. drone base\u00a0in a remote part of West Africa has garnered attention for its $100 million construction price tag<\/a>. But according to new projections from the Air Force, its initial cost will soon be dwarfed by the price of operating the facility \u2014 about $30 million a year. By 2024, when the 10-year agreement for use of the base in Agadez, Niger, ends, its construction and operating costs will top a quarter-billion dollars \u2014 or around $280 million, to be more precise.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s actually an undercount. The new projections from the Air Force do not include significant additional costs, such as salaries of the personnel stationed at the base or fuel for the aircraft flying out of Agadez. The facility, which is part of the<\/a> expanded<\/a> U.S. military footprint in Africa<\/a>, is now the largest base-building effort ever undertaken by troops in the history of the U.S. Air Force, according to Richard Komurek, a spokesperson for U.S. Air Forces in Europe and\u00a0Air Forces Africa.<\/p>\n

The outpost \u2014 officially a new airfield and associated facilities at Nigerien Air Base 201, or AB 201 \u2014 was once billed as a $50 million\u00a0base dedicated to surveillance drones, and it was to be completed in 2016<\/a>.\u00a0 Now, it\u2019s slated to be a $100 million base for armed MQ-9 Reaper drones which will finally take flight in 2019,\u00a0though the construction cost is hardly the end of the tab for the facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably one of the most remote U.S. military airbases ever built,\u201d said Dan Gettinger, co-founder and co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College and the author of a guide<\/a> to identifying drone bases from satellite imagery. \u201cMost drone bases on the African continent are appendages to larger airports and airfields, but not Agadez. The existing infrastructure is not there. So, the scale of the project is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Air Force documents<\/u> submitted to Congress in 2015 note that the U.S. \u201cnegotiated an agreement with the government of Niger to allow for the construction of a new runway and all associated pavements, facilities, and infrastructure adjacent to the Niger Armed Force\u2019s Base Aerienne 201<\/a> (Airbase 201) south of the city of Agadez.\u201d When the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 was introduced, embedded in it was a $50 million request for the construction of an \u201cairfield and base camp at Agadez, Niger \u2026 to support operations in western Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reporting by The Intercept found that the true cost of the airfield\u00a0is\u00a0double the reported sum \u2014 all of it laid out in a September 2016 article on the \u201c$100 Million Drone Base in Africa<\/a>.\u201d Despite more recent<\/a> news<\/a> reports<\/a> that the price tag of the base has risen to $110 million, Komurek told The Intercept that the total cost of the project has remained roughly the same, topping out at $98.5 million next year.<\/p>\n

While the total budget hasn\u2019t changed, the way\u00a0its costs are divided has. The price of construction jumped from $50 million to $60 million due to \u201cunanticipated effects of the austere conditions and remote location of Agadez,\u201d including the effects of severe weather, according to Komurek. In fact, in a June 2017 letter to Rep. Charlie Dent, then a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee and chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies, the Defense Department justified the $10 million increase by explaining that \u201cpoor initial planning and design\u201d led to unforeseen projects, increased costs in acquiring and delivering three aircraft shelters, and a need for new perimeter security measures.<\/p>\n

The Agadez base is now the largest \u201cairman-built\u201d project in Air Force history, according to Mark Kinkade of the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center, eclipsing construction at Al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates, a longtime clandestine outpost<\/a> from which the U.S. flies drones and fighter aircraft. Prior to that, the record-holder was Phan Rang Air Base in South Vietnam, which had nearly 150 aircraft<\/a> assigned to it in 1969.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A hangar being built at a new U.S. drone base, officially known as Nigerien Air Base 201, in Agadez, Niger, April 15, 2018. Photo: Carley Petesch\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The U.S. outpost at Agadez might be remote, but it\u2019s far from spartan. Photographs and videos released by the military show a base with all the typical American bells and whistles. Walk through the entryway<\/a> where the overhead sign reads \u201cWelcome to Agadez: Niger\u2019s Best Kept Secret,\u201d look around the base, and you\u2019ll notice the three massive hangars that each cost<\/a> $1.58 million. You\u2019ll see large satellite dishes<\/a>;\u00a0rows of air-conditioned Quonset hut-shaped tan tents<\/a>; and an Airmen Resiliency Center<\/a> that serves as both a chapel\u00a0and recreation center, with Wi-Fi and bookcases filled with few books but many movies<\/a> and board games. Walk out of the triple-digit heat into the climate-controlled (and cleverly named) Dezert Caf\u00e9, and you can watch ice hockey on a big-screen TV while chowing down on chicken or pizza or fish or cookies or potato chips, and then wash it all down with bottled water, Snapple, Sprite, Gatorade, Coke, or Dr Pepper. Each cafeteria table even comes equipped with a bottle of yellow hand sanitizer and any condiment \u2014 ketchup, mustard, steak sauce, hot sauce, Sriracha, soy sauce, Tabasco \u2014 that you could hope for.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Air Force also put out a call for contractors to provide weight room equipment for the base. The solicitation laid out how the gym will be outfitted: weight plates ranging from 2 1\/2 pounds to 45 pounds, dumbbells in five-pound increments up to 100 pounds,\u00a0and two \u201cRogue Abram GHD 2.0\u201d or equivalent pieces of equipment. For the uninitiated, the former is what its manufacturer calls<\/a> \u201cthe perfect Glute Ham Developer for any garage gym or training facility where space is at a premium.\u201d<\/p>\n

To keep the gym lit, the\u00a0Wi-Fi\u00a0on, the big screen bright, and the air conditioning running, not to mention the water potable and the troops fed, requires a significant amount of money. In 2016, the Pentagon told The Intercept that the annual cost to keep the base running would be slightly less than $13 million per year. Komurek explained, however, that those numbers were \u201climited\u201d and did \u201cnot cover the same categories of sustainment costs\u201d as the new $30 million estimate.\u00a0\u201cIn addition to the initial stand-up costs of a site, there are annual operations and maintenance sustainment costs for logistical support, maintenance and security which change based on the footprint and mission set supported,\u201d he explained by email. \u201cThe sustainment cost for AB201 is estimated to be approximately $30M per year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Formerly secret U.S. Africa Command planning documents<\/a>, first disclosed by The Intercept in 2016, attest to the importance of Agadez for future missions by drones, also known as remotely piloted aircraft or RPAs. \u201cThe top MILCON [military construction] project for USAFRICOM is located in Agadez, Niger to construct a C-17 and MQ-9 capable airfield,\u201d reads a 2015 planning document. \u201cRPA presence in NW Africa supports operations against seven [Department of State]-designated foreign terrorist organizations. Moving operations to Agadez aligns persistent ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] to current and emerging threats over Niger and Chad, supports French regionalization and extends range to cover Libya and Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction of the base began during the summer of 2016<\/a>, and the U.S. military hoped that drones would be flying from Agadez by the end of that year. According to Komurek, construction won\u2019t be completed until the end of this year, and aircraft will not fly from the base until 2019. \u201cThe challenge of building this enormous airfield in the middle of the dessert has resulted in the delays that we\u2019ve seen in getting this base operational,\u201d Gettinger told The Intercept.<\/p>\n

In the time since construction at Agadez began, U.S. military operations in North and West Africa have dramatically increased. Since 2016, the U.S. has carried out hundreds of drone strikes<\/a> targeting Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants, including two in June, in neighboring Libya. U.S. forces have also been operating<\/a> alongside Nigerien forces, a fact laid bare by an October 4, 2017, ambush by ISIS in the Greater Sahara<\/a> militants near the Mali border, about 600 miles from Agadez, that killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded two others.<\/p>\n

It took just over 1 1\/2 hours for the first aircraft, an unarmed \u201cU.S. ISR platform,\u201d to arrive at the scene of the attacks, according<\/a> to Army Maj. Gen. Roger Cloutier. If the outpost at Agadez had been completed on schedule, in late 2016<\/a>, could armed MQ-9 Reapers have come to the rescue of the ambushed Americans? The Intercept put that question to Gen. Tod D. Wolters, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa. The USAFE-AFAFRICA press office responded that \u201cit would be inappropriate for us or Gen. Wolters to speculate or comment on that hypothetical scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Related:<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Military Surveys Found Local Distrust in Niger. Then the Air Force Built a $100 Million Drone Base.<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>A Massive U.S. Drone Base Could Destabilize Niger \u2014 and May Even Be Illegal Under Its Constitution<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s Not Just Niger \u2014 U.S. Military Activity Is a \u201cRecruiting Tool\u201d for Terror Groups Across West Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>U.S. Military Is Building a $100 Million Drone Base in Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nick Turse<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 Aug 2018 – The Pentagon disclosed that in addition to the base\u2019s $100 million construction cost in Agadez, more than $30 million a year will be spent to operate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":117177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,127,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","category-africa","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}