African Partnership Flight to land at JB MDL

by 1st Lt. Jacob Bailey
621st Contingency Response Wing Public Affairs

8/28/2015 - JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- Approximately 40 African military personnel will visit Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to participate in the African Partnership Flight hosted by the 621st Contingency Response Wing here Aug. 30 through Sept. 4.

The African Partnership Flight program, sponsored and developed by U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, is the premier security cooperation program that partners U.S. and African personnel to improve professional military aviation knowledge, skills and cooperation.

During the weeklong engagement, U.S. Airmen from the 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron will focus on sharing ideas and experiences with African counterparts in the realm of logistics management and aircraft maintenance in order to develop mutual understanding and strengthen relationships between participants.
Participating African nations include Angola, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana and Tunisia. JB MDL units involved with the APF include the 621st CRW, 87th Air Base Wing, 305th Air Mobility Wing, and the 1/150th Aviation Battalion.

The exchange will feature interactive classroom discussions, briefings and facility tours at JB MDL.

"The African Partnership Flight is vitally important toward enhancing regional cooperation with partners," said Col. James Copher, 621st CRW commander. "Strengthening the global response network through regular engagements with our African partners develops greater aviation capacity and the ability to provide mutual support during air mobility operations."

Air Mobility Command's MSASs execute the command's building partner capacity missions. The 818th MSAS is aligned with and supports U.S. Africa Command engagements. AMC's building partnerships capability resides in a Contingency Response Wing structure. The 621st CRW, based at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst is the overarching organization responsible for the administration, training, and support of the mobility support advisory squadrons.

Each MSAS is a deployable organization with the capability to conduct building partnership capacity operations for partner nations to increase their air mobility enterprise.

The MSAS provide geographic combatant commanders with a specific range of skill sets tailored for engagement with a specific partner nation. Their core capabilities include command and control, air operations, aerial port, and aircraft maintenance.

Each MSAS has more than 70 technical experts, many with previous air advisor experience, representing nearly 35 Air Force specialties.