Marco Gragnani, a supervisory maintenance operations specialist and an Italian local national employee with Army Field Support Battalion-Africa (third from left), provides a few soldier maintainers from the Croatian army a tour of one of AFSBn-Africa’s maintenance facilities at Leghorn Army Depot in Livorno, Italy. Soldier maintainers from Croatian army were at Leghorn April 16-20 as part of a bilateral military-to-military APS-2 maintenance exchange with AFSBn-Africa.
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LIVORNO, Italy – For the third year in a row, Army Field Support Battalion-Africa, located at Leghorn Army Depot in Livorno, executed a bilateral military-to-military Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 maintenance exchange and engagement with the Croatian army.
At the Leghorn facilities April 16-20, APS-2 maintenance experts from AFSBn-Africa conducted an exchange of ideas and processes with maintainers from the Croatian army in order to share best practices and improve readiness for both armies, while fostering important partnerships and alliances.
In Livorno, AFSBn-Africa is charged with receiving, maintaining, storing and issuing APS-2 at Leghorn Army Depot as well as at locations forward, known as equipment configuration and hand off areas. Currently, AFSBn-Africa has mission command of an ECHA site in Czechia supporting DEFENDER 24, and in the next few days the battalion will be issuing hundreds of APS-2 vehicles and equipment pieces to a gaining tactical unit from the U.S. participating in DEFENDER.
“Opportunities like this aren’t afforded to every military unit or Soldier,” said Maj. Duane Dumlao, the AFSBn-Africa executive officer, referring to the Croatian army visit to Leghorn. “Mil-to-mil exchanges afford our team a chance to show how we conduct APS-2 maintenance operations to our allies and partners, like the Croatian army.”
“We find a common ground during these exchanges where both of us can learn from each other and improve our processes and capabilities. It’s all about readiness, and this is other opportunity to build readiness,” Dumlao said.
“This is our third year of doing this,” Dumlao said, “and they always send new people each year so more and more of these Croatian soldier maintainers get to learn from us. Hopefully in the future we get to visit one of their facilities in Croatia and learn more from them, as well.”
Carlo Franchini, a supervisory logistics management specialist and an Italian local national employee with Army Field Support Battalion-Africa (far right), facilitates a tour of one of the Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 warehouses at Leghorn Army Depot in Livorno, Italy, for members of the Croatian army who were there April 16-20 as part of a bilateral military-to-military APS-2 maintenance exchange with AFSBn-Africa.
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In November, more than 30 Polish air force personnel who have been selected to work at the new APS-2 site in Powidz, Poland – officially known at the Long Term Equipment Storage and Maintenance-Complex – conducted a site visit to Leghorn Army Depot to see how an APS-2 site operates. The week-long visit gave the Polish military personnel an opportunity to put eyes on a fully operational APS-2 worksite.
AFSBn-Africa is one of four battalions assigned to the 405th Army Field Support Brigade. The AFSBns have mission command of six APS-2 storage locations in five countries. They are Leghorn Army Deport, the Coleman APS-2 worksite in Mannheim, Germany, and the LTESM-C in Powidz, Poland, as well as APS-2 sites in Dülmen, Germany; Eygelshoven, Netherlands; and Zutendaal, Belgium.
The 405th AFSB’s APS-2 program provides turn-key power projection packages ready to deploy at a moment’s notice while helping to reduce the amount of equipment needed from the deploying forces’ home stations. APS-2 sites help reduce deployment timelines, improve deterrence capabilities and provide additional combat power for contingency operations. APS-2 equipment may also be drawn for use in training and exercises, like DEFENDER 24, happening now.
Africa battalion is also responsible for linking national logistics capabilities and providing logistics solutions to Army units and joint forces South of the Alps through U.S. Army Materiel Command’s Life Cycle Management Commands. Organizations AFSBn-Africa directly support – helping to enable readiness across two theaters of operations – are U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, Southern European Task Force-Africa, the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and other strategic partners and allies.
The 405th AFSB is assigned to U.S. Army Sustainment Command and headquartered in Kaiserslautern, Germany. The brigade provides materiel enterprise support to U.S. Forces throughout Europe and Africa – providing theater sustainment logistics; synchronizing acquisition, logistics and technology; and leveraging the AMC materiel enterprise to support joint forces. For more information on the 405th AFSB, visit the official website and the official Facebook site.