US Militarization of Latin America

Aviation Week & Space Technology
January 21, 2008 Pg. 34.
By Amy Butler, Washington

Down South

Regional cost-sharing seems an option for Central American Air Forces aging systems

As planning begins to remove U.S. forces from a key air base in Ecuador, the Pentagon is examining new arrangements with countries farther north, in Central America.

Cooperation with regional militaries and the largely underprivileged
indigenous populations in Central and South America is critical to avoid a
“a repeat’ so the extremism now rampant in Iraq and Afghanistan, says
USAF Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Central and
South America. As he works to gain support in Washington for the Regional Aircraft Modernization Program (RAMP), an initiative to pool resources from the U.S. and four Central American countries to modernize their small air forces, he is also beginning to examine how to handle the
counter-narcotics mission in the region without access to Manta Air Base
in Ecuador.

That country’s president has told the Pentagon he does not
plan to allow further use of the base beyond November 2009. The Defense
Department’s withdrawal from Howard AFB, Panama, in 1999 was part of the agreement struck by the U.S. to cede control of the Panama Canal. Manta became the main operating site for the Air Force Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, and the U.S. government invested heavily in improving the runway and facilities there after signing a 10-year lease. The Boeing 707-based aircraft use their 360-deg. radars to monitor air traffic, including drug smugglers. Navy E-2s with similar capabilities are also deployed in the region for this mission. A base in South America is
desirable to reduce the time to reach orbit locations for monitoring.
Basing the systems in the Southern U.S. would decrease a monitoring
aircraft’s on-station time. Seip says his staff has only begun to
examine alternate basing locations and their impact on tracking suspect
drug activities. However, the bulk of the Pentagon’s intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance fleet is dedicated to supporting
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. So, the likely outcome of this
basing shift will be a reduced intelligence collection from the assets
that are available.

Forces in U.S. Southern Command got a taste of the support that could come
from unmanned aerial vehicles with a one-time congressionally mandated
demonstration of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk’s capabilities there.
Seip notes that the long-dwell attributes of UAVs are well-suited to the
counter-narcotics mission. But so far, none have been assigned to him for
that purpose. Meanwhile, Seip is promoting a plan for the U.S. to help
the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua fund an aircraft modernization program. The age of the A-37s, UH-1s and F-5s used by these nations prohibits life-extension efforts.

The goal is for U.S. forces to introduce aircraft into the fleet, help the
nations train and develop operational plans for the systems and,
possibly, reduce the need for U.S. assets to conduct operations there.
The recapitalization is itemized in three phases. The first is an
inexpensive small airlifter such as the M-28 Sky Truck capable of various missions including short-takeoff-and-landing, intelligence collecting, personnel
recovery and law enforcement. Seip recommends at least four per country
at a cost of $56 million; the ideal objective would be six per nation.
Phase two calls for a medium-lift Huey replacement, such as the Bell 212,
at a cost of $96 million for the purchase of four per nation. An
additional four are being sought.

Phase three would provide an interceptor; Seip favors the AT-6B Texan II.
Four per nation would come to about $128 million, with an additional four
being recommended. Cost-sharing details are to be determined; these
nations would not be able to afford the systems on their own. Seip said it is realistic to anticipate the U.S. would pick up at least 90% of the cost. He hopes to have memoranda of agreement drawn up by June.

The plan also calls for long-term cost-sharing among the Central American
nations for training and logistics and the establishment of a regional
maintenance hub. These measures would produce whatever economies of scale are possible with the purchase of the systems.