U.S. Africa Command will convene its annual "Joint Europe Africa Deployment and Distribution Conference" (JEADDC) in Germany this December, according to a notice posted on this morning's Federal Register.
The Dec. 5-8 JEADDC will feature "a keynote address, panel discussions, and working groups involving agency personnel, members of the trade community, academia, and other government agencies," the notice reads, adding: "Conference participants will focus on transportation and logistics strategy, capabilities, initiatives, issues, and concerns in Africa and Europe.
Retired Lt. Gen. Claude "Chris" Christianson will be the keynote speaker, according to the notice. The conference's agenda is as follows:
Monday, December 5, 2011 ('icebreaker' social—6 p.m.-9 p.m.).
Tuesday, December 6, 2011 (opening remarks, keynote address, and panel discussions—8:15 a.m.-5 p.m.).
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 (working groups—8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.).
Thursday, December 8, 2011 (working groups working groups and out brief —8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.).
Inside the Pentagon reported earlier this month that AFRICOM is working to "rigorously prioritize" its missions and find ways to reduce redundancy in the face of dwindling defense spending, according to the general in charge:
AFRICOM is looking to determine where it can achieve the greatest effect as the Pentagon is forced to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming years, Gen. Carter Ham told reporters Wednesday [Sept. 14] at a breakfast in Washington. Regionally, that focus will be directed to East Africa, which is home to piracy, famine and violent extremists, Ham said.
"There's this seam, this boundary between us and Central Command, a growing connection between al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Shabaab and al Qaeda in East Africa," Ham said.
This region is also home to the Lord's Resistance Army, as well as the new nation of South Sudan. Ham said. "East Africa's kind of got the largest conglomeration of security issues," Ham said.
In addition, AFRICOM is looking to find opportunities to "do more multinationally, more regionally and less bilaterally," Ham said.
The Defense Department is facing nearly $350 billion in budget cuts. That amount could be increased depending on the actions of a supercommittee of 12 lawmakers tasked with proposing nearly $1.5 trillion in cuts across the federal government by Thanksgiving.
AFRICOM takes up a relatively tiny piece of DOD's budget, the general noted. "From a budget standpoint, we're pretty small potatoes," Ham said.
AFRICOM, which is located in Stuttgart-Moehringen, Germany, had nearly 2,100 personnel as of April, according to the command's website. DOD's fiscal year 2012 budget request seeks just under $290 million for the command, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.