"We might wish to have more presence in the southern rim of Mediterranean, where there are a certain number of countries that can be destabilized in the near future, large ungoverned areas across Africa that are clearly the new routes of narco trafficking, terrorists training and hotbeds of instability," Jones said.

He also spoke of "potential threats to the Alliance and our interests."

"As Africa becomes more and more of a challenge and a focus, not only for us but for the alliance," he said the United States would consider "that the carrier groups of future and the expeditionary strike groups may not spend six months in the Mediterranean but I bet they will spend half the time going down the west coast of Africa."

Washington has stationed 1,300 troops in the tiny east African country of Djibouti as part of its anti-terrorism effort in the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.

SPACE.WIRE