MANTA, Ecuador – The United States, in coordination with the Government of Ecuador, deployed 12 U.S. Air Force Airmen to Ecuador this week to support ongoing international relief efforts for victims of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the South American country April 16th.

The deployment includes an eight-man airfield assessment team that arrived in Manta April 22 to help assess damage to the airfield and identify necessary repairs. A U.S. Air Force four-man team with a mobile Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC) arrived at the city’s Eloy Alfaro Airport April 26 to help local controllers increase the flow of humanitarian aid entering the country.

The initial assessment team is scheduled to redeploy to their home station later this week.

The mobile ATC is designed to quickly establish air traffic services in austere environments to support aircraft movements in and out of airfields. Mobile air traffic control systems can be set up to be fully operational within 90 minutes, providing portable, durable, and modular radio communications and air traffic services equipment.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) directed the deployment at the request of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), the lead federal agency coordinating U.S. foreign disaster response efforts in Ecuador.

SOUTHCOM is one of the nation’s six geographically-focused unified commands with responsibility for U.S. military operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

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LINKS TO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• U.S. Southern Command: www.southcom.mil

• U.S. Embassy, Quito, Ecuador: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/index.html

• U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance: https://www.usaid.gov/news-information/press-releases/apr-26-2016-usaid-airlifts-relief-supplies-help-survivors-ecuador-earthquake