COHEN APPROVES SOUTHCOM PLAN TO OPEN FACILITIES IN CARIBBEAN, ECUADOR

Defense Secretary William Cohen on April 16 approved a plan drafted by
the U.S. Southern Command to open new military operating facilities on
two Caribbean islands and in Ecuador.

Cohen's blessing comes as a significant setback for Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. Michael Ryan, who had argued that the plan's designation of
his service as "executive agent" for all three initial "forward
operating locations" was unnecessary because the Air Force can
accomplish its counternarcotics mission from a single site at the
Dutch island of Curacao (Inside the Pentagon, April 15, p1).

"The Department of Defense is fully committed to ensuring that
necessary steps are taken to bring the FOLs to full operational
status," Cohen wrote in last week's memo. Among the features of the
plan, Cohen said, is that "the Air Force is designated 'executive
agent' for the FOLs at Curacao/Aruba, and Manta, Ecuador. As such, the
Air Force will develop, establish and maintain the operation of these
facilities."

In the end, it appeared the dye was cast for SOUTHCOM's full plan for
three initial FOLs when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen.
Henry Shelton rejected a formal protest lodged by Ryan on April 6. The
Air Force chief had told Shelton that while the JCS had discussed
SOUTHCOM's plan to open the new FOLs in an April 1 meeting, the chiefs
had stopped short of approving it.

In Ryan's view, his service could meet all of SOUTHCOM's operational
requirements for conducting the counterdrug mission -- which mainly
consists of airborne reconnaissance patrols over South and Central
America and the Caribbean -- using a single site at Curacao. Ryan
reportedly did not object to SOUTHCOM opening other FOLs for the other
services or the Customs Service to use, but he did not want to see the
Air Force stuck with the whole bill.

The service designated as executive agent for a particular FOL would
be responsible for funding it, and the concern is great among all the
services that the monies currently identified for the counterdrug
mission will not cover the cost to open multiple operating sites on
the Dutch islands of Curacao and Aruba, at Manta on Ecuador's Pacific
coast, and possibly at Liberia, Costa Rica.

In an April 16 response to Ryan, Shelton wrote that SOUTHCOM's plan
for multiple FOLs is "valid considering geographic limitations, the
total number of DOD and interagency aircraft incorporated into the CD
[counterdrug] mission, and the footprint restrictions at each of the
site options."

Shelton did not address why Navy, Air Force and Customs aircraft are
mixed at each location under the SOUTHCOM plan, which Ryan views as
unnecessarily costly considering the savings that could be achieved by
consolidating each service's infrastructure in each location. Cohen's
memo says SOUTHCOM will "review and refine" the new FOL plan after the
first several months of operation "to ensure an optimum combination of
effectiveness and efficiency for DOD and interagency air operations,"
although it remains unclear how much voice the services will be
accorded in this assessment.

Further complicating the matter is SOUTHCOM's insistence -- adopted
this week by Cohen in his own memo -- on counting Curacao and Aruba as
a single FOL. The two islands are about 30 miles apart and, from the
standpoint of the military operators, would reportedly require
duplicate facilities.

By SOUTHCOM's account, the Air Force is responsible for executive agency at
only two new FOLs: Curacao/Aruba as
one, and Manta as another. The Navy would be responsible for executive
agency at a "third" site if an FOL is negotiated
for Liberia, Costa Rica, under this framework.

"The governments of the Netherlands, Ecuador, and Costa Rica will not
permit positioning all CD surveillance assets in any single location,"
Shelton wrote to Ryan, although it did not appear Ryan had sought
anything beyond consolidating Air Force assets at a single location.
"Please be assured," he continued, "that regardless of the number of
FOLs assigned to the services, it is my intent to maintain
above-the-line funding for each site and to avoid the type of 'mission
creep' that would eventually erode readiness."

A SOUTHCOM advance team was to be dispatched as early as this week to
one or more of the FOLs to begin preparing the sites to accept assets
on an expeditionary basis from Howard Air Force Base, Panama,
according to defense officials. Air operations at the Central American
base will end May 1 in accordance with the 1978 Panama Canal Treaty,
which demands that all U.S. forces be pulled out by the end of this
year.

Some details of SOUTHCOM's operational concept for the anticipated
FOLs were still in limbo even as of this week, sources said, making it
difficult to ascertain exactly how the transition of operations from
Howard will unfold.