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The Newest—And Largest—Command
The newly established U.S. Atlantic Command (USACom)—which replaces the previous U.S. Atlantic Command (LantCom)—is now the largest U.S. unified command, with responsibility for the readiness of virtually all military forces in the continental United States.
The principal mission of the U.S. Atlantic Command is to develop joint force “packages” of Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps components that can be deployed rapidly to overseas areas and operate effectively upon arrival in forward areas. Under this concept, the major service commands in the United States report to USACom for training and deployment; in addition, LantCom will remain the unified or operational commander for the Atlantic Fleet (LantFlt) as well as for its readiness and training.
According to Department of Defense statements, the new Atlantic Command will also play a greater supporting role in “peace operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief.” Officials have said that planners are working on a syllabus for “peace training.”
The commander in chief of USACom continues to serve as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander (SACLant), one of the two major NATO military commands, svith responsibility for NATO operations tn the North Atlantic area.
The USACom concept is generally credited to the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin L. Powell. Last year, in a report to the Secretary of Defense on the roles, missions, and functions of the armed forces, General Powell lamented:
The unified command structure works well overseas, where CinCs with a geographic area of responsibility effectively direct the forces assigned to them from the services 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.'
Twice before, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had attempted to establish a single command to oversee military forces in the United States. In 1961, the U.S. Strike Command (StriCom) was activated to provide unified control over Army and
some of the same resistance by the military services as its predecessor did.
Over time, however, RedCom was given additional responsibilities, including a requirement to plan for and provide joint task force (JTF) headquarters for operations in areas that were not assigned to existing unified commands. What began as RedCom’s Rapid Deployment
When President Bill Clinton visited the carrier Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in March 1993, he got a glimpse of what would become the essence of USACom— joint force “packages.” Escorting the President was Admiral Paul David Miller, the first CinCUSACom. (See Admiral Miller’s article “The Military After Next,” pages 41^44, in this issue.)
Air Force units based in the United States, being given responsibility to train forces, develop joint doctrine, and plan for and execute contingency operations as ordered. Later, StriCom was given geographic responsibility for contingency planning for the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa south of the Sahara. General Powell has noted that “In attempting to fulfill its functional responsibilities as trainer and provider of forces, StriCom frequently collided with the Services’ authority under Title X [U.S. code] to organize, train, and equip forces.”2
In 1971, Strike Command was replaced by the Readiness Command (RedCom), which had the same training and readiness functions as StriCom but with no geographic areas of responsibility. RedCom, according to General Powell, experienced
Joint Task Force (RDJTF) eventually grew into a new unified combat command, the Central Command (CentCom), established in 1983. With headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, CentCom was given responsibility for Southwest Asia and related areas. The Readiness Command was disestablished in 1987.
Subsequently, with the end of the Cold War and the withdrawal of large numbers of U.S. military forces from overseas areas, the need was perceived for a better structure for training and organizing forces in the United States. As General Powell said, this would be “not just for occasional exercises, but as a way of life.”3
Accordingly, the new USACom was established as a joint headquarters for most U.S.-based forces. The existing At-
Proceedings / February 1994
89
lantic Command was selected as the basis for USACom because of its location and facilities and the desire to build on an existing command structure. The Norfolk area houses the headquarters of the Atlantic Fleet, Fleet Marine Force Atlantic (FMFLant), and Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLant), and it is near the Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC) at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, and the Department of Defense and JCS and their supporting staffs in Washington, D.C. Significantly, USACom does not control Pacific Fleet forces based on the U.S. west coast; those forces—including Fleet Marine Force Pacific—continue to come under the Pacific Command (PacCom).
Although there has been increased emphasis on “universal” doctrine and structure for U.S. forces, geography, personality, allies, and other factors make operations in the Pacific quite different from the Eu- ropean-Atlantic and other regions.
This could lead to problems if USACom forces are assigned to PacCom for operations in times of crisis and war. This appears to be one of the most significant potential problems in the USACom concept.
The first CinCUSACom is Admiral Paul David Miller, who has been CinCLant and SACLant since July 1992. Miller has long been a vocal advocate of joint operations and packaged forces.4 In the future, the CinC could be an Army, Air Force, or Marine Corps officer.
The previous LantCom had been commanded by a Navy admiral since its establishment in December 1947. CinCLant was the U.S. unified commander responsible for operations of all military services throughout the Atlantic area, including the Caribbean. Since the establishment of NATO in 1949, CinCLant also was the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic and until 1985 served additionally as CinC U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
USACom is one of nine U.S. unified commands, some of which date back 45 years. They were intended originally as regional commands, to direct operations by all U.S. military forces (and allied if appropriate) within a specific geographic area. Now there are several that are—in Navy jargon—“type” commands, responsible for forces or activities regardless of geographic area.
The commanders-in-chief of the unified forces are four-star officers; some CinC positions rotate among the services while some are assigned to officers of only one service. The current unified commands are:
► Atlantic Command; Headquarters Nor
folk, Virginia; established October 1993; CinC is Navy.
► Central Command: U.S. forces operating in the Middle East area. (The Central Command directed U.S. military operations in the buildup and war in the Persian Gulf War area in 1990-1991.) Headquarters MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida; established January 1983; CinC is Marine Corps.
► European Command: U.S. forces in Europe, including U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean; the CinC European Command is also the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Headquarters Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany; established March 1947’; CinC is Army.
► Pacific Command: U.S. forces in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas as well as
on the Asian mainland; the CinC Pacific Command additionally served as CinC Pacific Fleet until 1958. Headquarters Camp H. M. Smith, Oahu, Hawaii; established January 1947; CinC is Navy.
► Southern Command: U.S. forces in Central America and South America; the command was known as the Caribbean Command (CaribCom) until June 1963. Headquarters Quarry Heights, Panama; established November 1947; CinC is Army.
► Space Command: U.S. activities and forces in space, including the monitoring of foreign space activities. Headquarters Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado; established September 1985; CinC is Air Force.
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4See, for example. Admiral Paul David Miller,
► Special Operations Command: Directs U.S. special forces activities (primarily Air Force Special Operations Command, Army Green Berets and Delta Force, and Navy SEALs). Headquarters MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida; established April 1987; CinC is Army.
► Strategic Command: All U.S. land- based and sea-based strategic forces; the Strategic Air Command (SAC), a specified command with only Air Force components, was abolished in 1992 with most of its resources being made a part of the
Strategic Command as were the Join! Strategic Target Planning Staff, a multiservice agency that planned the laydown of U.S. strategic weapons and various Navy activities related to strategic missile submarine operations.6 (Despite soirf writers stating that the U.S. Strategic Command combined the separate A>ri Force and Navy strategic commands, ini fact, the Navy never had a strategic command; previously the naval strategic forces—carrier-based aircraft and ballistic-missile submarines—were assigned to the Atlantic, Pacific, and European unified commands.) Headquarters Offut1 Air Force Base, Nebraska; established 1992; CinC is Air Force.
> Transportation Command: All air and sea transport resources, including the seu transportation assets of the Navy’s \ Military Sealift Command. Headquarters Scott Air Force Base, lid" nois; established July 1987; CinC is Air Force.
In the past, the United States i also had “specified” commands-^! commands that have forces assigned from only one military service with the CinC being assigned from that service. These were the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command (merged into StratCom) and Military Airlift Command (nowO part of TransCom) and the Army ’ Forces Command (now a part of USACom). The last lost its status as a U.S. specified command when USACom was set up on I October 1993; it remains a major U-S- Army command.
The number of unified and specified commands is not fixed by law or regulation and may be changed at the discretion of the President and the Secretary1,1 Defense. Additional changes in the unified command structure can be expected in the near future. The Secretary of De' fense and the JCS are now looking in10 whether the U.S. space activities and missions should be assigned to the Strategic Command and the Space Command eliminated. In addition, the issue of the Atlantic Command’s providing forces and packages for the Pacific Command wid require more attention.
‘Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, “1993 Report the Roles, Missions and Functions of the Arm1 Forces,” 10 February 1993, p. 111-3.
’Ibid.
’Op. cit., p. III-4
Navy, “Doing the Job with a Smaller Fleet,” Pr° ceedings, April 1992, pp. 54-59.
’From March 1947 until July 1952 was Command | in Chief Europe (CinCEur), largely a U.S. Army c0111 mand and only nominally unified.
6See N. Polmar, “The U.S. Navy: A Unified StrJ»te' I gic Command,” Proceedings, December 1992, PP' 122-123.
Proceedings / February