{"id":32300,"date":"2020-02-26T15:46:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/26\/heres-what-espers-africom-review-has-decided-so-far\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:28:21","slug":"heres-what-espers-africom-review-has-decided-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/02\/26\/heres-what-espers-africom-review-has-decided-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what Esper\u2019s AFRICOM review has decided so far"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Facing skepticism from members of Congress about plans to alter force posture in Africa, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told members of the House Armed Services Committee that he remains committed to keeping U.S. forces on the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere are no plans to completely withdraw all forces from Africa,\u201d Esper said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of a broader review of the force structure for the combatant commands, Esper has been considering moving forces out of U.S. Africa Command\u2019s area of operations. Reports emerged at the end of 2019 that the department was looking at removing several hundred forces from Niger, Chad and Mali.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2020\/01\/22\/esper-says-no-decisions-have-been-on-africom-changes\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/49348184661_bed86b2628_k.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Esper says \u2018no decisions\u2019 have been finalized on AFRICOM changes<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">&quot;Everything you do has some type of folks questioning and having concerns,&quot; the secretary said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Esper has consistently stressed that no final decisions have been made on rotating forces in or out of AFRICOM, but that has done nothing to stall <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/congress\/2020\/01\/17\/smith-thornberry-join-congressional-pushback-on-espers-africa-troop-drawdown-plan\/\" target=_blank>bipartisan blowback in Congress<\/a>, including from HASC Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., and ranking member Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, who sent a joint letter to Esper raising concerns in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response to a Jan. 14 letter from HASC Vice Chair Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Md., among others, which raised concerns about a drawdown in AFRICOM, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood, who has since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2020\/02\/19\/rood-pentagon-policy-chief-to-exit-says-trump\/\" target=_blank>left the building<\/a>, noted that the first action coming out of the review is to deploy the Army\u2019s 1st Security Force Assistance Brigade to AFRICOM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That move will coincide with rotating out a brigade from the 101st Airborne Division to return stateside for \u201ctraining and preparation for high intensity conflict,&#8221; per Rood\u2019s letter to Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the HASC hearing, Esper said that swap is \u201cthe only decision made so far\u201d about AFRICOM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt makes great sense in terms of great power competition because security force assistance brigade is trained, organized, equipped to do that mission &#8230; whereas an infantry battalion doesn\u2019t have that,\u201d Esper said. &#8220;The infantry battalion in this case needs to go back to home so they can prepare for great power competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Esper said both his AFRICOM and U.S. Southern Command reviews are ongoing. A defense official <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defense.gov\/Explore\/News\/Article\/Article\/2094023\/espers-combatant-command-review-to-finish-by-september\/#.XlaEXw3l_pI.twitter\" target=_blank>told an internal Defense Department publication<\/a> this week that the review process for all the combatant commands will be completed by the end of September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The defense secretary shot down the idea the U.S. would look to leave Africa as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":68,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,23,92,12,25,68],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3323],"class_list":["post-32300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"THOSC64UXFGM5POSXHNDOTN33I","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2020\/02\/26\/heres-what-espers-africom-review-has-decided-so-far\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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leave Africa as a whole.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/02\/26\/heres-what-espers-africom-review-has-decided-so-far\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Army Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-26T15:46:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-07T22:28:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aaron Mehta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Aaron Mehta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t    \"@context\": \"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\n\t    \"@graph\": [\n\t        {\n\t            \"@type\": \"Article\",\n\t       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