Bruce Lemkin, the Air Force’s deputy undersecretary for International Affairs, announced yesterday that USAF’s leadership has approved the Air Force Global Partnership Strategy and the International Space Engagement Strategy, the two approaches that will drive the service’s outreach efforts with allies and friendly nations’ militaries. Air Force spokesman Capt. Mike Andrews told the Daily Report yesterday that the approval came in December. The AFGPS, which was unveiled last May, will provide the guidance for how the service organizes, trains, and equips itself so that it is able to establish mutually beneficial partnerships and interoperable capabilities, and increase the capacity of partner nations to provide for their own security. The space strategy supports AFGPS by prioritizing the Air Force’s efforts and focusing limited resources for space cooperation and partnerships. “The nature of space operations is global and space-enabled capabilities are essential to successful network-centric coalitions and enable interoperability and unity of effort across a spectrum of capabilities,” wrote Lemkin.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.