U.S. Army soldiers from the East Africa Response Force participate in a readiness exercise in Libreville, Gabon, in September 2024. (Mark Davis/U.S. Army)
STUTTGART, Germany — U.S. Africa Command was in the political crosshairs even before it stood up 18 years ago in Germany’s automotive capital.
From the outset, putting a four-star military headquarters focused on Africa in the hometown of Mercedes Benz and Porsche perplexed Stuttgart residents and outsiders alike.
Why isn’t AFRICOM in Africa? That’s a question that has dogged the command since the beginning. Now, the Pentagon is asking whether AFRICOM should even exist on its own.
Republican lawmakers this week raised alarms about a reported Pentagon proposal to merge AFRICOM into the crosstown headquarters of U.S. European Command, among other high-level reorganizations.
However, the debate over combining high military commands is hardly new. Such concepts have been percolating among lawmakers, military officials and security analysts for years.
Back in 2015, former Sen. John McCain brought the idea up during a Senate hearing focused on streamlining the combatant command structure.
Retired Adm. James Stavridis, who served as the head of the Stuttgart-based EUCOM from 2009-2013, endorsed a consolidation of the two headquarters during testimony.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talks to members of U.S. Africa Command at a town hall meeting in Stuttgart, Germany, Feb. 11, 2025. Some believe that AFRICOM should merge with U.S. European Command, also headquartered in the German city. Hegseth has said trimming military headquarters and reducing the number of four-star generals offer potential savings. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Such a move would mean returning responsibility for Africa back to EUCOM, where it had been prior to the inception of AFRICOM in 2007.
“AFRICOM was a good experiment, but I think it is time to admit merging it back together,” Stavridis said at the time, adding that a similar merger should be made between U.S. Southern and Northern commands.
Stavridis has shifted his position as the missions have expanded. On Tuesday, he told NBC News that consolidating EUCOM and AFRICOM would create a command “too large for any single person to manage realistically.”
Defense Priorities, a think tank that now has multiple associates serving in the Trump administration, has recommended a merger.
A subcommand under EUCOM should be sufficient to achieve U.S. aims in Africa, where there are limited U.S. military interests, Defense Priorities said in an October report dubbed “Rethinking Africa Command.”
The report argued that a three-star subcommand within EUCOM could handle Africa issues.
“The unique relationship between AFRICOM and EUCOM — through which most of their component commands are shared — should enable a smooth transition from the current command arrangement to the proposed three-star subcommand,” the report said.
AFRICOM backers, however, are likely to counter that the continent’s size, fast-growing population and increased competition with China for influence there merit a combatant command all its own.
AFRICOM’s formation was a source of debate from the start, when former President George W. Bush announced it at the height of the Pentagon’s war on terrorism.
At the time, critics of the AFRICOM plan warned that the bureaucrat weight of a new four-star headquarters risked overmilitarizing the U.S. approach to foreign policy in Africa.
Ghana armed forces Capt. Emmanuel Oti Boateng and U.S. Army Spc. Danielle Soberanis assess a simulated casualty during an exercise at Caserma Del Din, Vicenza, Italy, Jan. 15, 2025. There is a Pentagon proposal to place U.S. Africa Command back under U.S. European Command, CNN reported this week. (Katherine Sibilla/U.S. Army)
The Pentagon sought to ease such concerns. AFRICOM was presented as a new kind of combatant command, one focused on soft power and distinct from the muscular Central Command approach.
Over the years, though, AFRICOM’s effort to train militaries to handle their own counterterrorism operations morphed into something more robust.
High-profile incidents, such as the 2017 killing of four U.S. soldiers in Niger carrying out a counterterrorism mission and various other combat operations in Somalia, hardened AFRICOM’s image.
All the while, questions about AFRICOM’s position in Stuttgart persisted.
With Africa long off the table as a possible headquarters location, there was a push from various U.S. senators to get AFRICOM moved to their states in hopes of bringing jobs to their constituents.
Such ideas were bandied about for years but never came to fruition.
However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, he ordered AFRICOM to look for alternative locations outside of Germany.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, has said trimming military headquarters and reducing the number of four-star generals offer potential savings.
CNN, in a report Wednesday, cited a Pentagon planning document that said the military could save around $330 million over five years through EUCOM-AFRICOM and NORTHCOM-SOUTHCOM consolidations.
The document acknowledged the changes could present a “political risk” and would increase the “scope of control and operations for the combatant commander,” CNN reported.
