It’s official; the Pentagon has activated the new Africa Command, under the leadership of Army Gen. William Ward, who received Senate confirmation on Sept. 28. The initial organization will share space with US European Command at Stuttgart, Germany. The new unified command is to take full form by Sept. 30, 2008 at an as-yet unspecified location in Africa.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

