US Army soldiers from East African Response Forces took part in a warm-up campaign in Libreville, Gabon in September 2024 (Mark Davis/US Army)
Stuttgart, Germany – The US African Command was in a political crosshair even before it rose to Germany's automotive capital 18 years ago.
From the beginning, it has set up a four-star military headquarters focused on Africa in the hometown of Mercedes-Benz and the homeland of Porsche's confused Stuttgart residents and outsiders.
Why is Africa not Africa? That's a question that I defeated the command from the beginning. Now the Department of Defense is asking if Africom should exist on its own.
Republican lawmakers this week issued warnings about the reported Pentagon proposal to fuse Africom with the US European Command's Crosstown headquarters, among other high-level restructurings.
However, the debate over combining high military headquarters is not new. This concept has long been pervasive among lawmakers, military officials and security analysts.
In 2015, former Senator John McCain raised the idea at a Senate hearing focused on streamlining the commander structure of combatants.
James Stablidis, head of Stuttgart-based Ucom from 2009 to 2013, is currently retiring from James Stablidis.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will speak to members of the US African Command at the City Hall Conference held in Stuttgart, Germany on February 11, 2025. Africa believes it should merge with the US European headquarters, headquartered in German cities. Hegseth says that organizing the military headquarters and reducing the number of four-star generals will provide potential savings. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Such a move means returning responsibility for Africa to Eucom, which was before Africom began in 2007.
“Africom was a good experiment, but I think it's time to allow them to merge together,” Stavridis added at the time that a similar merger should be made between the Southern and Northern US headquarters.
Stavridis changed his position as the mission expanded. On Tuesday, he told NBC News that he would create a command “too big to realistically manage” by integrating Eucom and Africom.
Defense Priorities, a think tank with multiple peers currently working in the Trump administration, recommends mergers.
Subcommands under the EUCOM should be sufficient to achieve US objectives in Africa where US military interests are limited, defense priorities said in an October report called “Rethinking the Africa Command.”
The report argued that a three-star subcommand within the EUCOM can address the issue of Africa.
“The unique relationship between Africom and Eucom should allow for a smooth transition from the current command arrangement to the proposed three-star subcommands, as most of its component commands are shared,” the report states.
However, African supporters are likely to argue that the size of the continent, its rapidly growing population, and increasing competition with China for its influence there is a worthy of all the combatants' orders.
The formation of Africam was the source of debate from the start when former President George W. Bush announced it at the height of the Pentagon's war of terrorism.
At the time, critics of the Africom plan warned that the weight of the new four-star headquarters bureaucrats would endanger the overconflict of the US approach to Africa's foreign policy.
Ghana's Army Colonel Emmanuel O'Otti Boten and the US Army SPC. Daniel Sobernis evaluates the victims simulated during practice at Caserma del Din, Vikunza, Italy on January 15, 2025. There is a Pentagon's proposal to return the US African Command to US European Command, CNN reported this week. (Katherine Sibilla/US military)
The Pentagon tried to ease such concerns. Africom was presented as a new kind of combatant command. This was different from the central command approach of muscles, focusing on soft power.
But over the years, Africom's efforts to train the military to handle their own counter-terrorism operations have transformed into something more robust.
High-profile incidents, including the 2017 killing of four US troops in Niger, as well as various other combat operations in Somalia, have reinforced the image of Africam.
Meanwhile, questions about Africam's position in Stuttgart persisted.
With Africa long out of the table as a possible head office location, there have been pushes from various US senators to move Africom to the state in hopes of bringing the profession to its members.
Such an idea was banded for years and never came to fruition.
However, during President Donald Trump's first term, he ordered Africa to look for alternative locations outside of Germany.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said that reorganizing the military headquarters and reducing the number of four-star generals would provide potential savings.
In its report Wednesday, CNN cited the Pentagon Plan document that said it could save the military about $330 million over five years through the integration of Eucom-Africom and Northcom-Southcom.
The document acknowledged that the changes could present “political risks” and increase the “scope of management and operation of combatant commanders,” CNN reported.
