'US has a good friend in Qatar and Al Udeid is best strategic location'

(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The US airbase at Al Udeid represents one of American military's most enduring and most strategically positioned operations on the planet, a Washington Times report has said.
The base is technically Qatari property playing host to the forward headquarters of US Central Command and hosts about 11,000 US personnel. This is where one of the most complex campaigns in the history of the US Air Force is being orchestrated to pound Islamic State into submission — without setting off an unintentional conflict with Russian, Syrian and Iranian forces also buzzing over the battlefield.
'But as vital as it is, the American presence at the base also finds itself a pawn in a damaging diplomatic feud that has divided Qatar from Washington's other Arab allies in the region, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. As the Saudi camp presses the Trump administration to take its side in the dispute, the Qataris hold a crucial bargaining chip of having such a strategic US military operation located inside their borders, the Times said.
The feud exploded into public view in June when the Saudis and their allies launched a diplomatic and economic offensive against Qatar, reflecting what they said was Doha's too-soft posture toward Iran and support for militant groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar vehemently denies the charges.
However, Defense Secretary James Mattis has assured his Qatari counterparts that everything is fine with the US-Qatari 'strategic relationship, a message he backed up with a surprise visit last week to Al Udeid.
Washington Times Correspondent Guy Taylor said none of the commanders interviewed by him at Al Udeid in late September offered even the slightest hint that the regional diplomatic crisis has sparked consideration of packing up and leaving.
According to Maj. Gen. David S Nahom , deputy commander of US Air Force Central Command, the reasons are simple. 'If you had to put a thumbtack on the map, you could not ask for a better strategic location, he said of the Qatari peninsula, which juts like an appendage from Saudi Arabia into the Arabian Gulf adjacent to Iran.
There is also the 'unbelievable quality in the size of the runways and ramps [here], said the general.
'I just think we have a good friend in Qatar, and we have a very good location to operate out of, he said. 'I don't see us reducing for a long time.
Gen. Nahom said US forces can be expected be here for the foreseeable future.
Sources at the Pentagon indicate that about 100 US planes operate from Al Udeid. They include C-17 cargo jets and KC-135 Stratotankers, famous as the Air Force's 'flying gas stations.
'Al Udeid is a logistics hub, Brig. Gen. Jason R Armagost said in an interview at the base in September, adding that the base is prepared should the Trump administration significantly ramp up operations in Afghanistan.
'It's a theater hub for large aircraft, said Gen. Armagost, who heads the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, technically the largest expeditionary wing in the Air Force. 'On any given day, we service Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Whereas a base in Jordan or a base in Afghanistan deals with their local tactical problem, we support … theatre problems.
But there's something else at Al Udeid that sets the base apart from other Air Force installations around the world: a secretive facility known as the Combined Air Operations Center, or CAOC. It's there that representatives from the vast US-led global coalition to defeat Islamic State coalesce around a range of intelligence feeds to direct all air support and precision airstrikes across the 20-nation region overseen by Central Command.
Britain's Royal Air Force headquarters, along with about 100 British military personnel, are also based at Al Udeid.
'One of the reasons we're [here] is because this is where the [Central Command] CAOC is, British Air Commodore Johnny Stringer said. 'Not only are my own UK intelligence and targeting and ops teams on the floor in the CAOC, but we also have a whole number of [other] UK embeds across the CAOC as well.
The US has by far the most aircraft deployed in the region. But Commodore Stringer said the CAOC allows for a level of allied military-to-military cohesion and coordination not seen in American fighting since World War II.
'No one country has got either all the ideas or all the assets; so therefore, having that exchange of ideas and the ability to mix capabilities in the air is a real strength, he said. 'The coalition is the real strength.
The commodore said Qatar has been incredibly supportive — 'look at what they host here.
The history of the US military presence in Qatar stretches back to before September 11, 2001. It's a history inexorably tied to the Clinton administration's decision during the late 1990s to begin moving personnel out of Saudi Arabia following a series of nightmarish developments — most notably the 1996 terrorist bombing of a housing complex in the Saudi city of Khobar that left 19 US service members dead.
Qatar poured money into Al Udeid and helped the Americans to relocate. Donald H Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush's defence secretary, announced abruptly in April 2003 that the Pentagon was pulling all US troops out of Saudi Arabia and turning over control of the base to Saudi officials.
Washington began using the base during the weeks after 9/11 as part of the US military's scramble to open a campaign against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. In 2003, the base was vital to Bush's campaign to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Operations and permanent US structures at Al Udeid have been growing since.
Photos of Al Udeid were splashed across the Arab press after Qatar's Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al -Thani made a special September 11 visit to the base to pose with personnel from Qatar's Emir Air Force in front of warplanes and to meet with US commanders at the base.
Qatar is building its own air force headquarters at Al Udeid and the White House is pushing a $12bn sale of F-15 fighter jets to Doha.
Daily life for US military personnel at Al Udeid also does not suggest big changes are at hand.
The base isn't far from the capital of Doha, a city experiencing huge economic growth — with dozens of gleaming skyscrapers, parks and opulent museums opening or under construction.
'You're watching the birth of a nation here, one American official told the Times. 'It's the largest construction project in the world.
Security concerns are so low that a number of US officers and their families live in the city and commute daily to Al Udeid. 'I live downtown with my wife, said Air Force Col. Brian M Stumpe. 'I'm safer here than probably most large cities back home. I've never once felt threatened or in danger.
'Most folks have children with them, he added. 'The schools are incredible.
But it's the improvements inside Al Udeid, including permanent electric, plumbing and housing facilities, that would be most difficult to replicate quickly elsewhere.
'We are an expeditionary base that is in transition to an enduring presence, Gen. Armagost told the Times. 'If you drive around this base, you see cranes and heavy equipment operations.
'Quality of life [on base] has improved a lot since we started coming here, said Col. David B. Fisher, who recalled living in trailers during a previous deployment to Al Udeid in 2009. 'There's a lot of investment going on, he said, adding that he lives this time around in a building that feels more 'like an apartment on the base.
Dozens of reddish-brown dorms dot the landscape. On a recent drive through Al Udeid, another service member remarked: 'We're spoiled here. At most bases in the Middle East, it's tents — not buildings like this.
One end of the base features a state-of-the-art gym with sleek, air conditioned basketball courts and an indoor swimming pool. Al Udeid's vast base exchange is essentially an American-style mall boasting a Pizza Hut, Arby's and Taco Bell.
-Courtesy Washington Times

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