A U.S. congressional delegation visited Air Base 201 in Niger on May 4, 2023.

A U.S. congressional delegation visited Air Base 201 in Niger on May 4, 2023. Senior Airman Marcus Hardy-Bannerman / 406th Air Expeditionary Wing

After Niger coup, Air Force looks for other countries to host drone base

Still, ISR operations have resumed from Nigerien sites, the region’s U.S. Air Force commander said.

Updated: 7:34 p.m. ET

The U.S. is considering alternative countries to host its drone base for counter-terrorism missions in Niger after a coup in the West African country overthrew a democratically elected president. 

“There are several locations I'll say that we're looking at, but nothing's firmed up. We have talked to some countries about it,” said Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa.

However, the Air Force is waiting to see the results of U.S.-Niger diplomacy talks as the “diplomatic solution is going pretty well right now,” Hecker told reporters Wednesday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber conference.

“Our tactic was to kind of let the State Department do their thing and see what we can do diplomatically here because we don't want this thing to turn into a shooting war,” Hecker said.  

The Biden administration has yet to declare the removal of President Mohamed Bazoum a coup. Doing so would end military assistance to the country and have major ramifications for U.S. counter-terrorism operations in Africa.  

After the July coup, the U.S. halted drone operations but within the last “couple of weeks” the Air Force has been able to restart operations, Hecker said.

“We are now doing, I wouldn't say 100 percent of the missions that we were doing before, but we're doing a large amount of the missions that we were doing before,” the general said.

The resumed missions include ISR flights for force protection, not counter-terrorism operations, Air Force officials said in a statement issued after press time.

But the missions aren’t gathering as much data as they used to, Hecker said, because the U.S. had to move some equipment and personnel from Air Base 101, near the capital of Niamey, to Air Base 201, a base farther away from the coup—and farther away from targets that need to be surveyed.

“You're doing the mission, but you're not getting as much data because you're not overhead for as long just because of the gas it takes to get there and back,” Hecker said. 

Hecker also discussed ongoing efforts in Ukraine, as he commands U.S. Air Forces in both Africa and Europe. The general underscored the importance of air superiority during conflict—something neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to gain during the war. 

“Without that, what they started out doing was throwing 155 [mm] rounds back and forth at one another and what goes with that is mass casualties. Cities just turned into rubble. You have collateral damage, such as schools, hospitals, and those kinds of things, some on purpose, some not. And that's a war that I don't think any one of us wants to fight,” Hecker said.

The general outlined a few ways to gain air superiority, the most important being able to conduct counter anti-access and area-denial missions, or counter-A2/AD.

“It's really a joint effort to get rid of the very sophisticated integrated air and missile defense system that Russia has, so that's what we've been concentrating on,” Hecker said. “We're putting in place a plan to be able to do that and hopefully do that at mass.”

Another priority for NATO is building a strong integrated air missile defense system, which has been “kind of put on the back burner” over the last 30 years, Hecker said.

The war has also boosted F-35 sales, Hecker said. Since the invasion, many nations now want to buy F-35s, Hecker said, and the U.S. estimates over 600 F-35s will be operating in Europe in less than a decade.

NATO members are also sharing more information, he said. Before the war, allies shared 30 “points of interest” every month.  Now that number is up to 3,000. 

“All the extra F-35s and information-sharing that we're doing—thank you, Mr. Putin. That was probably something he wasn't counting on when he kicked this thing off,” Hecker said. 

Ukrainians are also validating the U.S. Air Force’s concept of Agile Combat Employment, he said, and underscoring the importance of resilient communications nodes that allow forces to operate from distributed locations. 

“If you look at what Ukraine's doing right now, they very seldom take off and land at the same airfield. They will take off and they'll land in another field and because of that, they've had very few of their aircraft that have died on the ground, if you will. So it's worked,” he said.

Asked about Ukraine’s use of air power during its counter-offensive, Hecker said weapons like the American-made Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range have been “fairly effective.” 

“They have enabled Ukraine to reach further back behind enemy lines and take out command and control centers and things like that,” he said. 

This has allowed Ukraine to take out several Russian munitions storage areas and some lines of communication, he said. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.