A Confusing Mess, The DoD in the post T2K period

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Primary source material from the 18th Edition of the Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet by Norman Polmar as well as the Congressional Records.


Defense Organization

The USA has a unified defense establishment that is responsible for the conduct of military operations, in support of the National Security Strategy. The basic structure was organized in 1947 and has several major modifications during and subsequently to the Cold War and into the current war against terrorism.

Under the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, the president is the Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces. The president’s primary advisers in this daunting role, are the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In addition (by federal law), the president is also assisted by the National Security Council which provides advise on a wide range of intelligence and national security matters. The permanent chair is the President and includes the Vice President, the Secretaries of Defense, State and Treasury, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The individual who coordinates NSC activities and directs its staff is the president’s National Security Advisor.

Traditionally, the National Command Authorities are the ‘terms’ for the President and the Secretary of Defense, as well as their deputized alternates and successors. The NCA has the constitutional authority to direct the armed forces and to order the release of nuclear weapons. NO ONE ELSE in the U.S. chain of command has the responsibility and the authority to order the launch of these weapons.

The principal components of the defense establishment are:
1) The Department of Defense
2) The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff
3) The military departments and their subordinate services
4) The unified combatant commands

Four of the U.S. military services are within the Department of Defense. The fifth, the U.S. Coast Guard, is currently part of the Department of Homeland Security and has responsibilities to both departments.

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This department is headed by the Secretary of Defense who is a civilian appointee and a member of the president’s cabinet as well as the National Secretary Council. This appointee is always a civilian.

The principal deputies under the Secretary of Defense are the Deputy Secretary and the four Under Secretaries. There are eight Assistant Secretaries of Defense and other civilian officials at this level who also report the Secretary and Deputy Secretary. The four Under Secretaries are supported by twenty-three Deputy Under Secretaries.

Supporting this collection is the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) with approximately 465 military personnel and 1,560 civilians assigned. In addition, there are 15 separate agencies under the Secretary of Defense that support the Department of Defense and the military services. These agencies perform the general functions that affect all U.S. military activities. Of these agencies, eight are headed by military officers (indicated by asterisks) and seven by civilians:

1) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
2) Defense Commissary Agency*
3) Defense Contract Audit Agency
4) Defense Contract Management Agency
5) Defense Finance and Accounting Agency
6) Defense Information Systems Agency*
7) Defense Intelligence Agency*
8) Defense Legal Services Agency
9) Defense Logistics Agency*
10) Defense Security Cooperation Agency*
11) Defense Threat Reduction Agency*
12) Missile Defense Agency* (formerly the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization)
13) National Imagery and Mapping Agency* (formerly the Defense Mapping Organization)
14) National Security Agency*
15) National Security Service

In addition to performing intelligence analysis for the OSD, the Defense Intelligence Agency also serves as the intelligence staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (equivalent of a J-2 staff). The National Security Agency (NSA) performs electronic intercept and cryptological activaties in support of the U.S. intelligence community, as well as the defense establishment. This agency also supervises the cryptologic activities of the Army, Navy. Marine Corps and Air Force.

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Congress established the War Department (1789) and the Navy Department (1798). These two departments administered the U.S. armed forces with their secretaries reporting directly to the president and were members of the president’s cabinet.

The 1947 National Security Act, created the National Military Establishment, the National Security Council and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Departments of the Army, Navy (and Marine Corps) and Air Force were established as cabinet-level departments, with the newly created Secretary of Defense acting as coordinator of these military departments.

Amendments to the National Security Act in 1949 established the Secretary of Defense as the principal assistant to the president in defense affairs and changed the National Military Establishment into the Department of Defense (DoD). These amendments also made the three military departments subordinate to DoD and removed their secretaries from cabinet level. Latter amendments have taken away many of the decision making prerogatives of the military departments and reassigned them to OSD and to various defense agencies.

The Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 established a new chain of command from the President and Secretary of Defense to the unified and specified commanders-in-chief, who were given full operational control over the forces assigned to them. However, the Secretary of Defense can delegate operational command over forces to the Joint Chiefs of Staff when deemed appropriate.

While there are five military services, there are seven reserve components: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard Reserve organizations and the Army and Air National Guard. The National Guard organization are under state control during peacetime but can be called into federal service at the direction of the President.

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The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) consists of the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and the military chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. All are four-star officers (general or admiral).

The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1968, reduced the role of the members of the JCS, but increased the authority of the Chairman as the senior U.S. military officer. The Chairman of the JCS became the principal military adviser to the president and the Secretary of Defense heads the Joint Staff. Significantly, under the Goldwater-Nichols Act, the Chairman of the JCS is in the chain of command between the President and the Secretary of Defense and the unified commanders.
The Joint Staff consists of seven directorates that perform military staff functions for the Joint Chiefs and to some extent, for the unified commands. These are:

1) J-1 Manpower and Personnel
2) J-2 Intelligence
3) J-3 Operations
4) J-4 Logistics
5) J-5 Strategic Plans and Policy
6) J-6 Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems
7) J-7 Operational Plans and Interoperability
8) J-8 Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment

The directors of the JCS staff directorates are three-star officers (lieutenant general and vice admirals). Their staffs are comprised mostly of military officers from all services. There are approximately 1,200 military personal and 185 civilians assigned to the Joint Staff.

The J-2 does not have a major staff as the other directorates, rather, the DoD/JCS intelligence function is carried out by the DIA.

Unlike the Former Soviet General Staff and the senior military staffs of other nations, the officers assigned to the Joint Staff are not professional staff officers, but are assigned for 2-3 year assignments from their service, often without any prior staff experience or education.

Historical
At their meeting in Washington D.C. during December 1941-January 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to create the Anglo-American Combined Chiefs of Staff. The British component already existed as the Chiefs of Staff Committee; there was no comparable U.S. body of senior military officers.

Lacking any specific executive action of congressional legislation, the senior U.S. military officers met as a bod for the first time with their British counterparts on 23 January 1942, to organize the Combined Chiefs of Staff. At the time, the term “Joint Chiefs of Staff” was used for the Americans, although some members were not the chiefs of their services. Initially, the JCS consisted of the Chief of Naval Operations; Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet; Army Chief of Staff; and Chief of the Army Air Forces. The position of Chief of Naval Operations was combined with that of Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Fleet in March 1942, giving the JCS three members. In July 1942, retried Admiral William D. Leahy was recalled to active duty as the Chief of Staff to the President and became the de facto Chairman of the JCS. The JCS membership remained with these four men for the remainder of the war.

The JCS served as both the U.S. component of the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the executive body for the direction of U.S. military forces during the war.

The JCS was formally established by the National Security Act of 1947, but the position of chairman was not authorized until the 1949 amendments. At this point, the position of chairman rotated in no specific order between the Army, Navy and Air Force. Some of the chairmen were former chiefs of their branch of service.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps, initially only attended JCS meeting only when specifically invited to discuss Marine issues and had no formal vote. In 1952, the Commandant was authorized to sit with the JCS and to vote on those issues of direct interest to the Marine Corps, in 1979, the Commandant was finally made a full member of the JCS.

The position of Vice Chairman was established in 1987 by the Goldwater-Nichols Act. Previously, this position was filled by the members of the JCS by rotation. Upon the formal creation of the position in 1987, the Vice Chairman became the stand-in for the Chairman as well as chairing the powerful Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), which controls the acquisition of weapon systems for the military services.

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There are three military departments within the Department of Defense, Army, Navy and Air Force. Each is headed by a civilian Secretary, Under Secretary and several Assistant Secretaries. These are all civilian positions, although, occasionally, military officers have been appointed as Assistant Secretaries, and within the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations has served as acting Secretary.

Reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense is the chief of the service, who is the senior military officer of that department (except for the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the JCS, who rank above the service chiefs).

The military departments are responsible for the training, provision of equipment, and the administration of their respective services. They do not direct military operations; that function was removed by the Defense Reorganization Act of 1958. The influence and prerogatives of the military departments have widely varied, depending on the personality, influence, and attitudes of the service secretaries and to a lesser extent, the service chiefs.

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Almost all U.S. operating forces are assigned to unified combat commands, which plan military operations, direct exercises and combat operations, and have operational control of specifically assigned U.S. forces. The reorganization of the Department of Defense in 1958 established the chain of command of the operating forces from the National Command Authority (the President and the Secretary of Defense) directly to the commanders (then called commanders-in-chief), of the unified and specific commands. At that time, unified commands would have components from two or more military services, while specified commands contained forces from a specific service, an example would be the Air Force’s Strategic Aid Command.

The 1986 Goldwater-Nicholas Act dramatically increased the authority of the unified commanders greatly strengthened the role of the Chairman of the JCS and of the field commanders, essentially reducing the fellow members of the JCS to that of onlookers who simply provided the necessary forces. In the Desert Storm campaign, General Schwarzkopf (Commander-in-Chief, Central Command), was literally king of his domain. During the war, no serious attempts were made by any of the services to go around Schwarzkopf. A service chief could not even visit the Gulf without his permission.

Currently, there are nine unified commands. Five of these are responsible for specific geographic areas, and the remaining four have worldwide functional areas of responsibility. The unified commands are not fixed by law or regulation, and the number of commands and their responsibilities vary by the direction of the President and the Secretary of Defense.

The geographic commands currently consist of Northern Command (NORTHCOM); Joint Forces Command (JFCOM); Pacific Command (PACCOM), and European Command (EUCOM) have major forces assigned to them; Central Command (CENTCOM) and Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) consist primarily of planning, command and control elements on a permanent basis, with specific formations reassigned to them from other unified commands during an exercise, a crisis, or in wartime. The most recent example is CENTCOM, which normally has a planning staff of several hundred personnel. When Operational Desert Shield began, CENTCOM assumed command of the buildup with over 500,000 U.S. military personnel with large numbers of ships, aircraft and ground units assigned. CENTCOM, in coordination with the Commander of the Saudi forces, directed Operation Desert Storm. CENTCOM also controlled the buildups, invasions, and follow-up combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002-2004.

“Overall, the unified command structure works well overseas, where CINCs with a geographic area of responsibility effectively direct their assigned forces in accomplishing a wide range of missions… But unification has never been achieved in the United States to the same degree as overseas. While forces based in the United States are assigned by law, to one CINC, many are assigned to overseas CINCs and have limited opportunities to train jointly with the overseas based forces they would join for military operations in crisis or war.” General Colin L. Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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Twice before, the Joint Chiefs of Staff have attempted to establish a single command to oversee the military forces in the United States. In 1961, this was the U.S. Strike Command (STRICOM), with the responsibility of providing unified control over Army and Air Force units based within the United States, with the responsibility of training forces, develop joint doctrine, and plan for and execute contingency operations as ordered. Later, STRICOM would also be assigned geographic responsibility for contingency planning for the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa south of the Sahara. General Powell noted: “In attempting to fulfill its functional responsibilities as trainer and provider of forces, STRICOM frequently collided with the Services’ authority under Title X to organize, train, and equip forces.”

STRICOM was replaced by the Readiness Command (REDCOM) in 1971. REDCOM maintained the same training and readiness functions, but had no geographic area of responsibility. Needless to say, REDCOM experienced the same resistance from the military services as had its predecessor. Over time, however, REDCOM was given additional responsibilities, including a requirement to plan and provide Joint Task Force (JTF) headquarters for areas that were not assigned to the existing unified commands. What began as REDCOM’s Rapid Deployment JTF would eventually grow into a new unified command, CENTCOM was established in 1983 with its headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa FL. CENTCOM assumed responsibility for Southwest Asia and related areas. REDCOM was abolished in 1987.

Shortly thereafter, the Atlantic Command (LANTCOM) was reorganized in 1993 as the U.S. Atlantic Command (USACOM) with the mission of preparing essentially all U.S. continental combat forces for overseas deployment. Of interest, USACOM did not assume control of the Pacific Fleet based on the U.S. West Coast; those forces, including Marine Forces Pacific, continued to come under PACCOM. Although there has been an increased emphasis on “universal’ doctrine and structure for U.S. forces, differences in geography, allies, commander personalities, and other factors made Pacific operations vastly different from those in the European-Atlantic and other regions.

LANTCOM/USACOM were reorganized, again, with the establishment of JFCOM in 1999 to control all U.S. forces in the Atlantic region and to serve as the DoD agent for joint warfighting experimentation; the creation and exploration of new combat concepts; and to provide military assistance to civilian authorities for the management of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). At the same time, responsibility for U.S. military operations in selected water around Africa and Europe was transferred from JFCOM to EUCOM and CENTCOM in 2000.
From the start of the unified and specified command structure, their commanders were known as Commanders-in-Chief (CinC), a title that dates within the U.S. armed forces back to General George Washington. In other words, the Commander-in-Chief, European Command, was known as CinCEUCOM.

This changed in 2002 when Secretary Rumsfeld directed that the term “CinC” would be dropped for the unified commands and subordinate organizations (such as the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets) and would be replaced by the term “combatant commander” for all appropriate military commanders. Only the President would henceforth be known as Commander-in-Chief.

All of the unified combatant commands are commanded by four-star officers, historically, unified commander positions was rotated among the services and some were assigned to officers of only one or two of the services.

In a sudden change in the natural order of things, Secretary Rumsfeld changed the Marine Corps normal place in the running of things. Previously to 2001, Marine officers held unified commands only in CENTCOM and its predecessor organizations, and once in USACOM. In January 2001, General James L. Jones (USMC) became head of EUCOM, a post that had previously been held only by Army and Air Force officers. In 2004, General James E. Cartwright (USMC) became the head of Strategic Command, the first Marine officer to hold that position, which had previously only be held by Air Force and Navy officers since 1992.

As the end of 2004, of the nine unified combatant commands, one was held by an Army General, three by Air Force Generals, three by Navy Admirals and one by a Marine General.

Coast Guard forces operating in forward areas report to the appropriate unified commander.

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The current unified combatant commands are:

CENTCOM: Central Command has the area responsibility for the Middle East (not including Israel, Lebanon and Syria); Southwest Asia (Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan), the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, Northwest Africa (Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan), and the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan).
Service components of CENTCOM include Air Forces; Army Force; Marine Forces, Naval Forces (including the Fifth Fleet) and Special Operations Forces.

EUCOM: European Command’s area of responsibility includes all of western Europe, portions of the Middle East (Israel, Lebanon, Syria), the Western Slavic and Caucasus states of the former Soviet Union (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine), most of Africa and the Mediterranean.

Service components of EUCOM are: Air Forces Europe; Army Europe, Naval Forces Europe (including the Sixth Fleet) and Special Operations Forces.

JFCOM: Joint Forces Command has geographic responsibility for the North and South Atlantic areas, less the Caribbean and the South American coastal areas. JFCOM Commander is also NATO Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, one of two major NATO military commands, with responsibility for NATO operations in the North Atlantic area.

Joint Forces Command, which replaced USACOM, is the largest U.S. unified command, with responsibility for the readiness of most military forces within the continental U.S. Its principal mission is to develop joint force “packages” of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps components that can be rapidly deployed to overseas areas and operate effectively. Due to this concept, major service commands in the U.S. report to JFCOM for training and deployment. JFCOM remains the unified or operational command for the Atlantic Fleet, as well as responsible for its readiness and training.

Service components of JFCOM are: Air Force, Atlantic Fleet (including the Second Fleet); Army Forces Command, Marine Forces (II Marine Expeditionary Force) and Special Operations Forces.

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NORTHCOM: Northern Command was established in the wake of the 9/11/2001 attacks and tasked with providing a central command organization of all DoD activities concerned with homeland defense and to provide a focal point for military relationships with civil authorities. It’s area of command includes the air, land and sea approaches and encompasses the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, and the surrounding water out to 500 nautical miles (925km). It also includes the Gulf of Mexico (now Gulf of America), Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

NORTHCOM is also responsible for security cooperation and the coordination of area defenses with Canada and Mexico. (Hawaii and all U.S. territories and possessions in the Pacific remain the responsibility of the Pacific Command. The Commander of NORTHCOM is double-hated as Commander, North American Aerospace Command (formally NORAD).

NORTHCOM also has a civil support mission that includes domestic disaster relief operations during fires, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Support of counterdrug operations and managing the damage of a terrorist event that employs a weapon of mass destruction. The command provides assistance to a lead federal agency when tasked by DoD.

Major military forces are not assigned to NORTHCOM. The Atlantic Fleet is assigned to provide training and advisory functions.

NORTHCOM’s counterdrug operations are undertaken by Joint Task Force 6 (JTF6), headquartered at Biggs Army Airfield, Fort Bliss, Texas. The mission of the 160 soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and DoD civilians is to provide support to federal, regional, state and local law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.

NORTHCOM’s Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-CS) provides command and control for DoD assets that operate in support of the lead federal agency managing the consequences of a NBC or high-yield explosive incident within the U.S. JTF-CS is based at Fort Monroe, Hampton Virginia.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get more complicated….Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region has the mission to deter and respond to terrorist activated in the Washington D.C. area. JTH-NCR has the Army’s Military District of Washington, the Naval District Military District and certain Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard components. Headquarters is located at Fort Leslie J. McNair in Washington D.C.

Pacific Command: PACCOM has the largest geographic area of any of the unified commands, with responsibility for the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas. Less the Arabian Sea and for most of the non-Russian portions of the Asian mainland, Australia, and New Zealand.

The CinC PACOM is usually a Naval officer.

The service component commands under PACCOM are: Army Forces; Marine Forces ( I and III Marine Expeditionary Forces); Pacific Air Forces; Pacific Fleet (including the Third and Seventh Fleets); Special Operations Forces.

Pacific Command: PACCOM has the largest geographic area of any of the unified commands, with responsibility for the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas. Less the Arabian Sea and for most of the non-Russian portions of the Asian mainland, Australia, and New Zealand.

The CinC PACOM is usually a Naval officer.

The service component commands under PACCOM are: Army Forces; Marine Forces ( I and III Marine Expeditionary Forces); Pacific Air Forces; Pacific Fleet (including the Third and Seventh Fleets); Special Operations Forces.

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Space Command: SPACECOM was disbanded 1/10/2002, and its responsibilities and activities were transferred to the U.S. Strategic Command. SPACECOM has responsibility over all U.S. activities and forces in space, including the monitoring of foreign space activities. In 1999, SPACECOM was also assigned responsibility for DoD computer network defense---monitoring and attempting to stop cyber intrusions.

The Army, Navy and Air Force Space Commands are the principal components of SPACECOM.

Special Operations Command: SOCOM directs U.S. special forces activities throughout the world through the subordinate commanders of the geographic operational commands. SOCOM differs from the other unified commands in that it has major budget planning and manpower responsibilities that are similar to those of the military services.

Its component commands, with published numbers of assigned personnel are: Air Force Special Operations (11,600); Army Special Operations (29,400); Naval Special Operations (6,300); Marine Corps Detachment (86). The Marine Corps component was only established 20/6/2003. Previously, the USMC shunned the formation of a special operations component, believing that any Marine unit is capable of such operations. Indeed, all deploying Marine Expeditionary Units (MEU) are Special Operations Capable, hence MEU(SOC).


Strategic Command: All U.S. land-based and sea-based strategic forces are assigned to STRATCOM. The Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (SAC) was abolished in 1992, and the majority of its resources were assigned to STRATCOM. Also incorporated into the Strategic Command was the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff (JSTPS). A multiservice agency the planned targeting of U.S. strategic weapons as well as U.S. Navy SSBN operations. On 1/10/2002, U.S. SPACECOM was disbanded and its responsibilities and activities were transferred to Strategic Command.

STRATCOM became the defacto command and control entity for all U.S. strategy forces and assumed control of military space operations, computer network operations, information operations. strategic warning and intelligence assessments and strategic planning.

Components include the newly established Air Force Strategic Command, and Navy Task Forces 134 and 144 (Pacific and Atlantic Fleet submarine forces).

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Transportation Command: All non tactical U.S> military air and sea transport resources are assigned to TRANSCOM. Its component commands are: Air Force Air Mobility Command; Navy Military Sealift Command and Army Military Transportation Management Command.

But WAIT! There’s More!!!!

In addition to the nine unified commands, there are several sub-unified field commands and combined commands that have important roles in the national defense strategy. Two of these commands are unique and deserve special attention.

U.S. Forces Korea: Also known as USFK this is a subordinate command of PACOM and serving as the joint headquarters through which combat forces would be sent to the Combined Forces Command; the binational command that has operational control over U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) forces in South Korea.

The Commander, USFK also serves as CinC, United Nations Command and represents the United Nations Security Council on the Korean Peninsula. This position is a four-star general and is always an Army position.

North American Aerospace Defense Command: Also known as NORAD, this is a binational, combined command of Canadian and U.S. forces. The command is responsible for aerospace warning and aid defense for North America.

The Command, U.S. Northern Command also serves as Commander, NORAD, in the latter role has responsibilities both the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister. This is primarily a four-star general position, usually Air Force, but with occasional Navay admirals.