This report presents findings emerging from a short study investigating the challenges associated with coordination of strategic airlift in and around Africa. The African theatre of operations is of increasing strategic importance to militaries across Europe and North America, and is home to a growing variety of national and multinational operations (including deployments of national assets and contingents as part of larger European Union and United Nations missions). At the same time, the geographical, political and practical constraints of operating in the African continent, as well as enduring barriers to cooperation among partner nations, present barriers to the efficient coordination of airlift and other logistic support in the region.

To understand these various challenges, in July 2020 the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE) commissioned RAND Europe to conduct a scoping study. This focused on gathering insights from a targeted literature review and stakeholder perspectives from across the MCCE and representatives of selected Member Nations. This report outlines the findings of that scoping exercise, and identifies implications for the MCCE and areas for potential further investigation and analysis.

With offices in Cambridge, UK, and Brussels, Belgium, RAND Europe is the European arm of the global RAND Corporation, an independent not-for-profit research institute whose objective is to help improve policy- and decision-making through objective research and analysis.