Assessing the Acquisition Capacity of the Djiboutian Navy through its Defense Industrial Base.

Abstract

The Republic of Djibouti is a small country located in East Africa. Its location, on the Horn of Africa, exposes it to threats of the Houthis on the sea line of communication throughout the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea passing through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Therefore, the Republic of Djibouti needs to secure the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to ensure a sea line of communication and support its national security. To accomplish this mission, Djibouti requires a strong and reliable defense industrial base (DIB) that can sustain the Djiboutian Navy to conduct effective maritime control and surveillance. The study uses the sector-by-sector/tier-by-tier (S2T2) and fragility and criticality (FaC) conceptual framework to examine the Djiboutian DIB that currently supports Djiboutian shipbuilding and which contributes to the operationality of the Djiboutian Navy (DJN). These concepts help identify risks associated with the DIB, particularly the shipbuilding domain, that could impact the defense budget and the Naval forces’ operationality. The analysis in this study generates several recommendations to the Djiboutian government: (1) implement laws and regulations that support shipbuilding and local industries by mandating all procurement and repair shall be done in the territory and by local companies; (2) update infrastructure; (3) train shipbuilding personnel to become skilled laborers; (4) avoid supply chain disruption by diversifying sources and creating local distribution centers.