United States Central Command
Emblem of the United States Central Command.
Active	1983–present
Country	United States of America
Type	Unified Combatant Command
Headquarters	MacDill Air Force Base Tampa, Florida, U.S.
Nickname(s)	CENTCOM
Engagements	Persian Gulf War Iraq War War in Afghanistan
Commanders
Combatant Commander	General Lloyd Austin, USA
Deputy Commander	Vice Admiral Mark Fox, USN [1]
Notable commanders	General David Petraeus Admiral William Fallon General John Abizaid General Tommy Franks General Anthony Zinni General James Mattis General Norman Schwarzkopf
Insignia
Shoulder sleeve insignia (US Army only)

The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in 1983. It was originally conceived of as the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF).

The "CENTCOM Area of Responsibility" (AOR) includes countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq. USCENTCOM has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), and the Iraq War. As of 2015^[update] CENTCOM forces are deployed primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat roles and have support roles at bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Pakistan, and central Asia. CENTCOM forces have also been deployed in Jordan, and Saudi Arabia in the past, and although there is a small presence remaining in each of those countries, no substantial U.S. forces are based there as of 2009^[update].

As of 22 March 2013^[update] CENTCOM's commander is General Lloyd J. Austin, U.S. Army, who took command from General James Mattis, USMC . Mattis took command from ^[2][3][4] Lieutenant General John R. Allen, USMC, the deputy commander since July 2008, who took temporary command when the previous commander, General David Petraeus, USA, left to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan on 23 June 2010.^[5]

Of all 6 American regional unified combatant commands CENTCOM is among the three with headquarters outside its area of operations. CENTCOM's main headquarters is located at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida. A forward headquarters was established in 2002 at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar, which in 2009 transitioned to a forward headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar to serve American strategic interests.

History

In 1983, U.S. Central Command was established to succeed the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force to handle US national security interests in Southwest Asia, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. Among its first activities was oversight of the 1987–1988 Tanker War in the Persian Gulf.

With the 1990 Invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Operation Desert Shield, hundreds of thousands of troops were transferred to Saudi Arabia. Islamists objected to non-Muslim troops in Saudi Arabia, and their use in Operation Desert Storm; this with other attacks on Iraq became a key rallying cry for opposition movements in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. By the late 1990s, Central Command gradually moved troops to other countries, particularly Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Exercise Internal Look has been one of CENTCOM's primary planning events. It had frequently been used to train CENTCOM to be ready to defend the Zagros Mountains from a Soviet attack and was held annually.^{[6]: 331–2, 335–6} Harold Coyle's novel Sword Point gives an impression of what such planning envisaged, by a U.S. Army officer who would have had some idea of the general planning approach. After 1990 Norman Schwarzkopf reoriented CENTCOM's planning to fend off a threat from Iraq and the exercise moved to a biennial schedule. The exercise has been employed for explicit war planning on at least two occasions: Internal Look '90, which dealt with a threat from Iraq, and Internal Look '03, which was used to plan what became Operation Iraqi Freedom.

From April to July 1999 CENTCOM conducted Exercise Desert Crossing 1999 centered on the scenario of Saddam Hussein being ousted as Iraq’s dictator. It was held in the McLean, Virginia, offices of Booz Allen.^[7]: 6–7 The exercise concluded that unless measures were taken, “fragmentation and chaos” would ensue after Saddam Hussein's overthrow.

During the Israeli incursion into Lebanon of 2006 the temporary Joint Task Force Lebanon was operational.

On 1 October 2008 Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti was transferred to United States Africa Command or AFRICOM.

The United States Forces – Iraq or USF-I, was a major subordinate multi-service command during the Iraq War order of battle until it was disestablished in 2011.

In January 2015, CENTCOM's Twitter feed was reported to have been hacked on 11 January by ISIS sympathizers.^[8]

Structure

CENTCOM headquarters staff directorates include personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics, plans & policy, information systems, training & exercises, and resources, and other functions. The intelligence section is known as Joint Intelligence Center, Central Command, or JICCENT, which serves as a Joint Intelligence Center for the co-ordination of intelligence. Under the intelligence directorate, there are several divisions including the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence.

CENTCOM directs four "service component commands" and one subordinate unified command and no fighting units directly subordinate to it:

The U.S. Army Forces Central Command (USARCENT), and the U.S. Air Forces Central Command (USAFCENT), both headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, the U.S. Marine Forces Central Command (USMARCENT), headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida and the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (USNAVCENT), headquartered at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

MacDill Air Force Base also hosts a Sub-unified command called the Special Operations Command Central (USSOCCENT).

Two major subordinate multi-service commands reporting to Central Command were the International Security Assistance Force, which was taken over by NATO and the Combined Forces Command Afghanistan Afghanistan War order of battlefor U.S. force in Afghanistan. Temporary task forces include the Central Command Forward - Jordan (CF-J), established in Jordan after 2011. The reason for its establishment has been reported to seize Syrian WMD if necessary.^[9]

Elements of other Unified Combatant Commands, especially United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), operating in the CENTCOM area. It appears that SOCCENT does not direct the secretive Task Force 77, the ad-hoc grouping of Joint Special Operations Command 'black' units such as Delta Force and Army Rangers, which is tasked to pursue the most sensitive high value targets such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban leadership since 11 September 2001. Rather TF 77, which started out as Task Force 11 and has gone through a number of name/number changes, reports directly to Joint Special Operations Command, part of USSOCOM.

War planning

Source: William Arkin, Code Names p.46

• CENTCOM OPORDER 01-97, Force Protection
• SOCEUR SUPPLAN 1001-90, 9 May 1989
• CENTCOM CONPLAN 1010, July 2003
• CENTCOM CONPLAN 1015-98, possibly support to OPLAN 5027 for Korea, 15 March 1991
• CENTCOM 1017, 1999
• CONPLAN 1020
• CONPLAN 1067, for possible Biological Warfare response
• CENTCOM CONPLAN 1100-95, 31 March 1992

Geographic scope

In 1983 with the establishment of the command Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti came within the area of responsibility (AOR). Thus CENTCOM became responsible for the 'Natural Bond' exercises with Sudan, the 'Eastern Wind' exercises with Somalia, and the 'Jade Tiger' exercises with Oman, Somalia, and Sudan. Exercise Jade Tiger involved the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit with Oman from 29 November 82-8 Dec 82.^[10]

The formal Area of Responsibility now extends to 20 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uzbekistan, and Yemen. International waters included are the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, and western portions of the Indian Ocean.^[11] Syria and Lebanon are the most recent addition, having been transferred from the United States European Command on 10 March 2004.

Israel, which is now surrounded by CENTCOM countries remains in United States European Command (EUCOM), "because it is more politically, militarily and culturally aligned with Europe," according to American military officials.^{[12][citation needed]} General Norman Schwarzkopf expressed the position over Israel more frankly in his 1992 autobiography: 'European Command also kept Israel, which from my viewpoint was a help: I'd have had difficulty impressing the Arabs with Central Command's grasp of geopolitical nuance if one of the stops on my itinerary had been Tel Aviv.'^[13]

On 7 February 2007, plans were announced for the creation of a United States Africa Command which would transfer responsibility for all of Africa except the country of Egypt to the new USAFRICOM. On 1 October 2008, the Africa Command became operational and Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa, the primary CENTCOM force on the continent, started reporting to AFRICOM at Stuttgart instead of CENTCOM in Tampa.

The U.S. armed forces use a variable number of base locations depending on its level of operations. With warfare ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2003, the United States Air Force used 35 bases, while in 2006 it used 14, including four in Iraq. The United States Navy maintains one major base and one smaller installation, with extensive deployments afloat and ashore by U.S. Navy, U.S Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard ships, aviation units and ground units.

List of CENTCOM commanders

No.	Image	Name	Service	Start	End	Time in office
1.		GEN Robert Kingston	United States Army	1 January 1983	27 November 1985	1061 days
2.		Gen George B. Crist	United States Marine Corps	27 November 1985	23 November 1988	1092 days
3.		GEN H. Norman Schwarzkopf	United States Army	23 November 1988	9 August 1991	989 days
4.		Gen Joseph P. Hoar	United States Marine Corps	9 August 1991	5 August 1994	1092 days
5.		GEN J. H. Binford Peay III	United States Army	5 August 1994	13 August 1997	1104 days
6.		Gen Anthony Zinni	United States Marine Corps	13 August 1997	6 July 2000	1058 days
7.		GEN Tommy Franks	United States Army	6 July 2000	7 July 2003	1096 days
8.		GEN John Abizaid	United States Army	7 July 2003	16 March 2007	1348 days
9.		ADM William J. Fallon	United States Navy	16 March 2007	28 March 2008	378 days
(Acting)		LTG Martin E. Dempsey	United States Army	28 March 2008	31 October 2008	217 days
10.		GEN David H. Petraeus	United States Army	31 October 2008	30 June 2010	607 days
(Acting)		LtGen John R. Allen	United States Marine Corps	30 June 2010	11 August 2010	42 days
11.		Gen James Mattis	United States Marine Corps	11 August 2010	22 March 2013	954 days
12.		GEN Lloyd Austin	United States Army	22 March 2013	Incumbent	Template:Seniority days

Unit decorations

The unit awards depicted below are for Headquarters, US Central Command at MacDill AFB. Award for unit decorations do not apply to any subordinate organization such as the service component commands or any other activities unless the orders specifically address them.

Award streamer	Award	Dates	Notes
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	2 August 1990 – 21 April 1991	Department of the Army General Order (DAGO) 1991-22 & 1992-34[14]
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	1 August 1992 – 4 May 1993	DAGO 1994-12 & 1996-01
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	8 October 1994 – 16 March 1995	DAGO 2001–25
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	1 September 1996 – 6 January 1997	Joint Staff Permanent Order (JSPO) J-ISO-0012-97
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	1 October 1997 – 15 July 1998	JSPO J-ISO-0241-98
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	16 July 1998 – 1 November 1999	JSPO J-ISO-0330-99 / DAGO 2001–25
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	2 November 1999 – 15 March 2001
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	11 September 2001 – 1 May 2003	DAGO 2005–09
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	2 May 2003 – 31 December 2005
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	1 January 2006 – 1 March 2008	JSPO J-ISO-0061-08
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	2 March 2008 – 1 July 2010
	Joint Meritorious Unit Award	2 July 2010 – 31 July 2012

See also

• Strategic Army Corps

References

External links

• U.S. Central Command
• Multi-National Force – Iraq Template:En icon
• Multi-National Force – Iraq Template:Ar icon
• Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africae
• ISAF
• Spiegel, Peter (5 January 2007). "Naming New Generals A Key Step In Shift On Iraq". Los Angeles Times.