J Radebe: Africa Joint Operations Conference

18 September 2006

"Civil transportation and joint operations: a non-military view of the
relationship in an African context"

It is not often that I get the opportunity to exchange ideas with a largely
military and defence audience, so thank you for the opportunity to address this
Africa Joint Operations Conference.

The previous speaker has provided an overview of the various threat
scenarios, assessments, challenges and opportunities that exist within the
current African context. It is certainly not for me to wander into the terrain
of my colleague the Minister of Defence and his Department so I will leave
defence to unpack the defence aspects of his presentation. Thus, I have
interpreted my brief to provide a report on important civil transportation
developments across the continent that might impact on joint operations in the
future and to then extend the concept of joint operations between military
formations to encompass joint co-operation and co-ordination between military
and certain civil formations.

This conference is probably the first in South Africa where the interface
between civil transportation and military operations has received such
prominence. Hopefully my comments will help end a particular silence in the
academic literature about the role of transportation in current African
missions.

It seems that the concept of joint operations, meaning in its simplest form
the co-operation and co-ordination of the specific functions of different
military formations in pursuit of a common goal, often in direct collaboration
with civil agencies and bodies, is almost as old as warfare itself. But just as
the face of warfare has changed over time so our responses to conflict have
also developed. Conflict in Africa is not new and we would delude ourselves if
we believed that successful economic development would somehow eradicate all
the root causes of conflict on its own. Provision must still be made for the
specific task of security and defence by states and even regions, for whilst
economic development can change the infrastructure skyline of countries and
localities, it also brings new social forces to the fore to challenge,
sometimes openly at other times violently the established order of things.
Infrastructure and transport related infrastructure in particular has an
uncanny way of being either an enabler or a victim of conflict, depending on
whose side you are on.

My comments this morning are divided into just two main areas. First of all,
an overview of current realities precedes a brief summary of initiatives that
if allowed and encouraged to come to fruition will change the transportation
face of Africa as dramatically as the initial impulse of major transportation
investment between the 1890s and the 1930s. This resonates with both current
and evolving requirements of the status of forces agreements negotiated between
the United Nations (UN) and host countries where these relate to the use of and
access to roads, waterways, port facilities and airfields by peace mission
forces.

A second focus will draw out specific aspects of how these new developments
might impact on the conduct of joint operations. I assume an operational
context of "military operations other than war" where we have a situation of
increased peace mission activity in the future, the continued need to
participate in disaster relief operations and wish fervently that open warfare
between ourselves and others remains remote. The experience of the United
States (US) transportation command asks some interesting questions of an
African audience, even though their activities are confined by a specific
posture driven by US defence doctrine and operates on an unprecedented scale
and scope. There are some issues that suggest something stronger than just
co-operation between civil transportation and defence establishments if we are
to get people and material to where they are needed, sustain them while they
are there and get them out again when the job is done or indeed if we need to
get them out in a hurry.

Most commentators and governments alike agree that much of Africa's
transportation, energy and communication infrastructure leaves much to be
desired. There are vast differences in the quality and quantity of assets of
their state of repair and maintenance and of the ability to engage in multi and
inter-modal activities. However, the adoption of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) towards the eradication of poverty and establishment of
sustainable development by 2015 has focussed attention much more clearly on the
implementation of action plans across a range of sectors.

Africa's transportation challenges derive mainly from the inheritance of
peculiar historical distortions that fragmented the continent, concentrated
only on providing rail and road links between the interior and the coast. These
"hastened the drainage of resources, produce and manpower away from the
periphery towards central concentrations of urban centres, ports and associated
economic activity" and identified new colonial boundaries as solid barriers
particularly those between colonies of different imperial powers. These
developments consolidated the isolation of areas that with colonialism and the
accidents of geography became land-locked states and peripheral regions.

A second transportation challenge arose from the inability of
post-independent states to overcome the spatial and economic limitations of the
colonial era spurred by a general investment drought in transportation assets
over the years. These elements combined to create a situation where
connectivity within and between many countries and regions is absent making
economic development or indeed the promotion of security, extremely difficult.
Many regions of Africa are characterised by the weak administration of state
authorities and where lip-service is often paid by localised power elites and
factions to state authority, even in some urban areas. Isolation coupled with
the dynamics of localised economies and activity has often been the handmaiden
of rebellion and revolt.

Most of Africa is not served by a strong all-weather road system and the
extent of well-maintained paved road systems is isolated in areas of the south
and the far north of the continent. But even here there are anomalies. For
example, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially boasts the longest
road network in excess of some 150 000 kilometres but although these roads
appear on maps, many tend to disappear with the onset of the rainy season, but
many more have been reduced to little more than tracks and footpaths after so
many years of civil war. A common feature including in South Africa is a
situation where the operating road network is bedevilled by over concentrations
of freight traffic, overloading and poor maintenance.

Internal waterways are the lifeblood for many states in Africa. Obvious
examples are those states associated with the Nile, Niger, Congo and Zambezi
rivers but it is less well known that there are a number of countries where
internal waterways provide longer communication networks than rail (for
example, DRC, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, Zambia and Mozambique). Both Chad and
Central African Republic have no rail networks and they rely extensively on
waterways for transportation. Fortunately, investment in river port and harbour
facilities and efforts to improve inter-modal connections are appearing
increasingly in the domestic investment plans of many countries.

Rail provides probably one of the areas of greatest potential development in
Africa, existing in all but six countries in Africa. But the distribution of
rail resources is biased almost totally in favour of the south and South Africa
in particular. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for over 80 percent of African rail
where South Africa accounts for 35 percent of the total Africa system or 42
percent of Sub-Sahara's network. Similarly South Africa accounts for about 47
percent of locomotives in Sub-Saharan Africa or 32 percent of the African total
but the distortions leap out when we consider that South Africa accounts for
well over 90 percent of African and sub-Saharan electric locomotives. A similar
situation exists, obviously, with the current distribution of the freight wagon
fleet where South Africa's rail freight system accounts for over 70 percent of
the African total and some 91 percent of sub-Saharan traffic. Complicating the
rail picture is the wide diversity of different gauge lines across the
continent, making interconnectivity once again a bit of a problem with obsolete
technology and rolling stock predominating.

Airport assets are also unequally spread across the continent. South African
Development Community (SADC) countries account for some 2 200 or so, or
approximately 55 percent of paved and unpaved airports but the bulk of paved
airports are concentrated in South Africa (over 140), Egypt (just over 70),
Libya (59), Algeria (52), Nigeria (36) and Angola (32). It is more difficult to
assess the relative split between strictly military airports and civil airports
but there is now considerable development taking place in many parts of the
continent to upgrade mainly civil airports many of which cater for general
aviation traffic as well as to build new airports and rejuvenate more isolated
ones. South African developments aside, Kenya, Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria and
more recently the DRC, are upgrading airport upgrades will go a long way to
improving the situation.

Much work is needed to improve the situation in ports and merchant shipping
in Africa. Egyptian and South African ports dominate container traffic in
Africa, but many of Africa's other ports are increasing their share of regional
traffic. By the end of 2005, some 85 percent of African ports had involved
private sector participation in one form or another with the concession of
operations and services being the preferred model followed by management
contract plans. Movement in this direction has been swift in North Africa
followed by east and southern African and west Africa moving a little slower.
Critically important improved investment in new crane technology, electricity
and power upgrades, berth extensions and development, more regular dredging
services, the implementation of the new security requirements of the
International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and so on are changing the situation
for the better.

Of particular relevance is the question of ship repair and maintenance
facilities. Africa has a limited number of ship repair facilities dotted around
the coast but very few have capabilities that extend beyond their regional
markets. Thus, Angola, Cameroon, Ivory Coast provide floating dock lifting
capacities of some 10 000 dead weight tonnes. At least the west African region
will benefit greatly with the continued expansion of graving dock facilities at
Ghana's Tema Shipyard to deal with larger vessels, whereas Dakar's graving dock
facility remains an impressive operation. Mombasa and Antsiranana in Madagascar
are important locations on the east coast. South Africa's own facilities
including Simonstown Naval Dockyard continue to provide important services,
although here too we must acknowledge that we need urgently to expand our
capacities in ship repair and maintenance and even re-establish our
ship-building capability as a country as well.

What then is being done to improve the situation? The African Union's (AUs)
commission on infrastructure and energy has taken the lead since African
Ministers of Transport met in Addis Ababa in April 2005 to discuss
implementation of the MDGs. Ministers responsible for air transport and rail
have met separately to investigate improvements in these specific areas and
Ministers responsible for maritime affairs are scheduled to meet before the end
of the year under the auspices of the IMO and roads' Ministers will meet during
the course of next year. Without summarising the detailed recommendations and
conclusions of these meetings, let me just highlight one or two aspects of
relevance to this conference.

First of all, we have used the concept of the "missing links" in African
transportation systems to identify and prioritise regions and specific projects
that require urgent attention. These initiatives aim largely to overcome the
colonial distortions I referred to earlier.

By way of example, those 'missing links' in the rail sector are illustrated
on the map overleaf. (Similar maps outlining the situation in road, port and
aviation development can also be generated quite easily).

These linkages do not include improvements to existing networks such as the
upgrade of the Mombassa-Kampala line or between Addis Ababa and Djibouti.
Similarly, the planned Great Lakes Railway to link Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and
Tanzania is another option being considered. Of great importance though is the
combination of road and rail networks in the west African trade corridor
linking Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Cote d'Ivoire. Our own
SADC-based development corridors that will ultimately link the east and west
coasts across the southern part of the continent should also be kept in
mind.

Increasingly, too, the ideas of intermodal linkage particularly between
road, rail and waterway networks but beginning to extend towards air capacities
as well are taking firmer root. The importance of airlift to joint operations
underlines a whole range of initiatives to ensure safe air navigation systems
in a region of steadily increasing activity.

We are painfully aware that lax safety oversight, deficiencies in safety
management and poor training systems are among the main contributing factors to
Africa's dismal air safety record. These are compounded by the lack of suitable
navigation systems. Both International Air Transport Association (IATA) and
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), urged on by African Civil
Aviation Commission (AFCAC), are now beefing up assistance but there are a
number of other initiatives that aim to provide a safer and more secure African
air space management environment. South Africa's Air Traffic and Navigation
Services (ATNS) is driving the development of an Africa-wide satellite based
communication system to extend the current SADC Very Small Aperture Terminal
(VSAT) system (that includes Rwanda and Burundi) to link with west Africa
establish a new system in north east Africa; upgrading equipment and
introducing new technologies and also exploring the feasibility of regional
upper airspace management control centres. Critically, the safe operation of
reduced vertical separation minima and the introduction of global navigation
satellite systems (GNSS) standards are on track. One recent yet very pertinent
case was the assistance ATNS gave to DRC to introduce Required Area Navigation
(RAN) systems at 10 airports in that country as part of the programme to assist
in the recent peace mission and election process.

ICAO is also dealing with measures to ensure the safety of airliners against
man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) and other threats of a military
nature against commercial traffic. Obviously, this work requires close
cooperation with the industry and involves fascinating technical developments
in crossover, dual-use applications of military equipment in the civil market.
A recent amendment to ICAO regulations now requires all air transport operators
to provide aircraft operator security programmes. This effectively extends the
requirement that all commercial, scheduled airlines provide safety and security
plans and information to states to all providers of air transport services
including freight that will need the approval of the countries to which the
service is provided. This will have an impact on the providers of commercial
airlift services to military customers in particular. Similar activity by the
IMO in the commercial maritime arena has the fullest support from African
states including measures to combat piracy on the high seas to control movement
of certain hazardous materials and to improve maritime security at sea, in
ports and on the approaches to ports.

If that is the transportation context of operations in Africa at the moment,
let me turn quickly to the experience of the US transportation command. The
success of United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) efforts has been
attributed to the provision of "mobility forces and assets in a force structure
continuum designed to be able to make a seamless transition from peace to war"
through a reliance on "a blend of active and reserve forces, civilian employees
and commercial industry". Requiring both "flexibility and initiative",
"America's mobility force is often as busy in 'peace' as it is in war".
However, carrying out these essentially non-war operations are a challenge
because they are conducted "within peacetime manning and material constraints".
The pressure builds when "the command's peacetime force structure must
routinely surge to wartime operational levels". I am sure that those sentiments
resonate with a number of you.

A critical component of USTRANSCOMs activity is the relationship it has with
commercial transportation systems, institutions and businesses. In terms of
airlift capacity for example the US Civil Reserve Airlift Fleet "provides 93
percent of [the] defence transportation system's international passenger
capacity, 98 percent of [their] strategic aeromedical evacuation and 41 percent
of [their] international long-range air cargo capacity." Interestingly they
estimate that it would cost the US Defence establishment some $50 billion to
procure and between $1 and $3 billion annually to meet the requirement
in-house. The saving to the military comes from a legal contract system that
"guarantees peacetime business to participating airlines in exchange for their
pledge to provide specified capacities in wartime". There is the US Aviation
War Risk Insurance programme, for example, that provides civil operators with
adequate cover when they support military operations.

Similar support is provided to the maritime community in the US when they
are called upon to provide sealift support. The US commercial flag fleet
provides over 80 percent of cargo carriage to theatres of operation during
wartime. The system is driven by preferences in peacetime being given to those
providers of services in wartime through the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift
Agreement. Furthermore, in return for financial assistance through the Maritime
Security Programme "participating carriers commit vessels and other
transportation resources for Department of Defence (DoD) use in the event of
contingencies. These vessels also provide employment to a number of US merchant
mariners needed to operate [them]". In essence the USTRANSCOM depends on the
protection given to US commercial transportation entities through legislation
such as the Jones Act and the Fly America Act.

Notwithstanding the scale of US operations, the domestic networks are
equally vital to keep the system flowing. Thus "the US transportation industry
is [defined as] vital to national defence" because essentially, the "domestic
infrastructure of aerial ports, sea ports, railheads and connecting highway and
rail arteries are the 'launch platforms'" the US uses for their strategic
deployments. The USTRANSCOM also notes, however, that "future strategic
mobility aircraft and ships will need to move greater amounts of cargo faster"
and that given "current lead times for design and development, it is imperative
that we stay abreast of industry initiatives, articulate militarily useful
requirements, and insert them early in the design of future systems".

Now we simply do not have, for example, a domestic commercial flag fleet of
any note nor a civil air reserve at present in South Africa; nor do we have the
complex contractual or legislative system that greases the wheels of
USTRANSCOM. I would be delighted to receive submissions from the South African
defence establishment about their views on these types of initiatives to secure
support from our own state and private civil transportation community.

In 2000, "for the first time [the US] used trains to transport peacekeeping
troops and equipment from Germany through Bulgaria and Macedonia into Kosovo.
This rail-overland approach saved seven days from the normal 12-day
sea-overland method previously used". This one example suggests to me that if
we were able to considerably improve Africa's land, port, road and air based
transportation systems we would not only provide a catalyst of enormous power
for economic development and social improvement but we would also provide the
means for more cost-effective, efficient and time-saving methods for the
deployment of peacekeeping forces into areas where they are needed. The costs
of operations, of sustaining our forces and of the inevitable problem of not
knowing exactly how long an operation will last, will remain prohibitive and
probably the most important constrain on Africa's ability to look after its own
security interests. As a result, we must engage the fullest range of options,
and use our imagination to see how best we can squeeze every last drop of value
out of the dollars we spend. My argument is that a significant saving in the
future could come from investment in and development of civil transport systems
today. This would include making sure that parts of our civil rolling stock
fleet of locomotives, wagons and road transport also meets military security
and safety requirements and standards.

This is not an argument to take away resources from severely pressured
defence departments. Nor is it an argument that we should return to an earlier
era where transport infrastructure planning in South Africa was driven in part
by the securocrats. The concept of security my argument supports is the same
one found in the Defence White Paper and which derives from our Constitution.
The security of people, through economic and social justice and development is
the paramount objective we seek. But obviously we need to ensure that those
African countries that are or who will become the backbone of peace missions on
our continent (and elsewhere when the need arises), have the necessary domestic
infrastructure to provide the domestic launch pad for operations; and that they
are able to sustain their support.

At one level, military and armed forces are designed and equipped to reduce
their dependence on local infrastructure, be it bridges, roads, airfields,
ports and communications. This is the case only partly because warfare and
conflict bring destruction in their wake whether we like it or not. This
capacity for relative independence from the local context will remain a feature
of peace missions and military operations for some time to come in Africa and
so the defence industry and technology sectors will continue to design and
develop equipment that circumvents some of these basic infrastructure
requirements.

As the infrastructure initiatives take root, it is hoped that the
disproportionate distribution of assets and services will begin to correct
itself across a wider area of the continent. In the absence of a strong civil
transportation backbone and the provision of reliable multimodal services, it
is inconceivable that future missions will be possible without adequate
above-average provision of transportation assets by contributing states. Most
of these state assets, by their very nature will need to be administered if not
directly owned by defence and security departments, but they could be funded by
both direct and indirect contributions from other relevant governments as well
as the defence budget itself.

Where it has been necessary to downsize military capacity, the capability
must be identified, located and supported in the rest of society to ensure that
we are not caught unprepared. The readiness of our armed forces to carry out
missions in direct support of the mandate we have given them must be matched
with the readiness of civil transportation and other structures of society to
assist, support and even participate in those operations. Downsizing to meet
artificially defined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) proportions according to
global criteria must surely take into account the ultimate costs to the state
as a whole of losing strategic capabilities if they either cannot be met by
civil society sources or have to be imported from outside the region or
continent. Currently peace missions and disaster relief operations rely
overwhelmingly on extremely costly air transport with a high dependence on a
very limited number of Private-Sector Charter and cargo operators. Distance,
remoteness, topography, the lack of infrastructure or the absence of reliable
services on existing networks conspire to force larger costs into the provision
of transport and logistics rather than the actual peace mission itself. How the
non-defence establishment comes to the party requires urgent and sustained
consideration.

But, and this is a very loud and clear but, everything I have said about
co-operation and co-ordination between components of civil transportation
structures, institutions and entities and the defence establishments
responsible directly for peace missions or other operations must not and cannot
be interpreted as support for the "return to private enterprise in war". The
participation of private sector entities alongside state structures in military
and defence operations must not be misconstrued as the transfer of
responsibility from the state to private actors or indeed as the extension of
private interests benefiting from the private wars of individuals. These, at
least for our government, represent potential mercenary activity in camouflage
that cannot be tolerated.

Finally, and in conclusion, we must avoid the temptation to isolate and
compartmentalise mandates and missions that in fact cut across a whole number
of departments, institutions and indeed the society as a whole. Thus, the A400M
partnership that South Africa has entered into with European countries is not
simply SANDF procurement. It is a core element of our aerospace development
programme as well as a means to build a sufficient and necessary airlift
capacity in our region.

I am confident that the renewed vigour evident in the work in the African
Union (AU) as well as across individual countries on the continent, that we
will be able to re-establish and indeed build new capacities and capabilities
in the transportation sector whose main inspiration remains economic
development and social progress, but which also plays a role not only in the
specific instances of peace missions and operations but also as a critical
component of the much larger and longer term task of peace building and
post-conflict reconstruction.

I thank you for your attention.

Issued by: Department of Transport
18 September 2006
Source: Department of Transport (http://www.transport.gov.za/)