Stars and Stripes has confirmed that Africom's Joint Intelligence Operations Center (JIOC) is based at RAF Molesworth near Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. RAF Molesworth was a US cruise missile base up until 1988 and is currently home to US European Command's (EUCOM) Joint Analysis Center and NATO's Intelligence Fusion Centre.
As EUCOM was until recently responsible for Sub-Saharan Africa it already was the home to a team of Africa specialists who have been joined by Africom military staff, as well as a large number of civilian contractors provided by L3 Communications and Northrop-Grumman.
There have been suggestions that a key source feeding the centre is the National Security Agency's facility at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire - perhaps the most important site in the world for the interception of communications both from and within Africa.
While Africom's PR machine churns out regular news from and about the command on its website, it has not yet mentioned this base.
