UK — New Joint Forces Command established

The new Joint Forces Com­mand (JFC) achieved Ini­tial Oper­at­ing Capa­bil­i­ty today, 2 April 2012.

A mil­i­tary band plays as the new Joint Forces Com­mand stands up at North­wood HQ on 2 April 2012 [Pic­ture: Mark Rawl­ings, Crown Copyright/MOD 2012] Source: Min­istry of Defence, UK Click to enlarge

The launch of the Joint Forces Com­mand is a major mile­stone in the MOD’s Trans­form­ing Defence pro­gramme — the most sig­nif­i­cant pro­gramme of Defence reform for a generation. 

To mark the estab­lish­ment of the new Joint Forces Com­mand today Sec­re­tary of State for Defence Philip Ham­mond MP, attend­ed a cer­e­mo­ni­al event at JFC’s new North­wood head­quar­ters. The Defence Sec­re­tary also unveiled a plaque to mark the event. 

The Joint Forces Com­mand has been estab­lished to ensure that a range of vital mil­i­tary capa­bil­i­ties, func­tions and organ­i­sa­tions – such as med­ical ser­vices, train­ing and edu­ca­tion, intel­li­gence, and cyber – are organ­ised and man­aged effec­tive­ly and effi­cient­ly to sup­port suc­cess on operations. 

By bring­ing togeth­er a num­ber of joint Defence organ­i­sa­tions, the Joint Forces Com­mand will ensure invest­ment in joint capa­bil­i­ties is appro­pri­ate and coher­ent, and strength­en the link between expe­ri­ence in oper­a­tional the­atres and top-lev­el decision-making. 

The cre­ation of the Joint Forces Com­mand was rec­om­mend­ed by the Defence Reform review, led by Lord Lev­ene, as part of the most sig­nif­i­cant pro­gramme of change across the Min­istry of Defence in a gen­er­a­tion. The report was pub­lished in June 2011; and the Joint Forces Com­mand has been designed and deliv­ered from scratch in only nine months. 

Over the next year, the Joint Forces Com­mand will assume the full range of its planned respon­si­bil­i­ties in sup­port of Defence’s objec­tives for cur­rent oper­a­tions, future con­tin­gen­cies, and for the longer term. 

Air Chief Mar­shal Sir Stu­art Peach said: 

“I am delight­ed to be in com­mand for the launch of the Joint Forces Com­mand. Through­out my career I have been pas­sion­ate about the effec­tive deliv­ery of joint capa­bil­i­ties, and I will ensure that, from the very start, the Joint Forces Com­mand places this at the heart of every­thing it does. Since I took up post in Decem­ber 2011, I have vis­it­ed most of our units, over­seen our organ­i­sa­tion tak­ing shape, and I now look for­ward to lead­ing it to deliv­er world-class sup­port to our mil­i­tary forces.” 

Defence Sec­re­tary Philip Ham­mond said: 

“The estab­lish­ment of the Joint Forces Com­mand in such a short time­frame is a sig­nif­i­cant achieve­ment in the deliv­ery of Defence Reform. I look for­ward to work­ing with Air Chief Mar­shal Sir Stu­art Peach as he leads this new Com­mand to deliv­er a step-change in the way that UK Defence plans, pre­pares and exe­cutes joint operations.” 

On 2 April 2012, the fol­low­ing organ­i­sa­tions trans­ferred to the Joint Forces Command: 

• The Per­ma­nent Joint Head­quar­ters (known as PJHQ)
• The Per­ma­nent Joint Oper­at­ing Bases in Gibral­tar, Cyprus, British Indi­an Ocean Ter­ri­to­ry and South Atlantic Islands
• The Joint Force Headquarters
• The Joint Force Logis­tics Component
• The Joint Counter-Ter­ror­ist Train­ing and Advi­so­ry Team
• The Direc­torate of Spe­cial Forces
• The Defence Academy
• The Devel­op­ment Con­cepts and Doc­trine Centre
• Defence Intel­li­gence
• Sur­geon General’s Head­quar­ters and the Joint Med­ical Command
• The Joint Arms Con­trol Imple­men­ta­tion Group
• The Defence Cen­tre of Train­ing Support
• The Defence Cyber Oper­a­tions Group.

The total num­ber of mil­i­tary and civil­ian per­son­nel in the Joint Forces Com­mand will be around 30,000 — which includes forces deployed on oper­a­tions under com­mand of the Chief of Joint Oper­a­tions. These per­son­nel are at sites across the UK, over­seas in the Per­ma­nent Joint Oper­at­ing Bases, and on oper­a­tions in mil­i­tary the­atres around the world, most notably Afghanistan. 

The head­quar­ters of the Joint Forces Com­mand, sit­u­at­ed at North­wood, north of Lon­don, at ini­tial oper­at­ing capa­bil­i­ty, is a lean struc­ture, con­sist­ing of around 150 civil­ian and mil­i­tary staff. 

The Com­mand will reach its full oper­at­ing capa­bil­i­ty by April 2013, by when it will have assumed addi­tion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties and func­tions. As the new Com­mand matures, it will con­tin­ue to devel­op Defence foun­da­tion and joint capabilities. 

Press release
Min­istry of Defence, UK 

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