Monday, August 24, 2009

Maintaining & Running Diego Garcia

From Defense Industry Daily:

Located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the British Indian Ocean territory of Diego Garcia is a key strategic base that acts as a staging area for navy ships, long-range bombers, aerial tankers, and other military assets whose missions take them to Africa, Asia, and the Middle east. Secondary missions include its status as one of the Space Shuttle’s emergency landing sites, and hosting one of Global Positioning System’s 3 ground antennas, as well as facilities belonging to the USA’s Space Surveillance Network.

The UK/ U.S. treaty that turned the island into a military base was signed in 1966. It runs until 2036, but either government can opt out in 2016. Meanwhile, there’s the non-trivial matter of supplying, improving, and operating the island’s military infrastructure…

Read more ....

My Comment: An interesting peak on what it takes to run and maintain one of America's most important bases abroad.

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