President Authorizes U.S. Joint Forces Command Closing

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2011 — Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma issued an offi­cial mem­o­ran­dum yes­ter­day autho­riz­ing Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates to dis­solve U.S. Joint Forces Com­mand.
“I here­by accept the rec­om­men­da­tions of the sec­re­tary of defense and chair­man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and approve the dis­es­tab­lish­ment of Unit­ed States Joint Forces Com­mand, effec­tive on a date to be deter­mined by the sec­re­tary of defense,” the memo read in part.

In the doc­u­ment, Oba­ma also direct­ed Gates to noti­fy the Con­gress on his behalf. 

Gates announced in August that he would rec­om­mend the com­mand be elim­i­nat­ed and its essen­tial func­tions assigned to oth­er orga­ni­za­tions. Dur­ing a Pen­ta­gon news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Gates said about half of the Nor­folk, Va.-based command’s mis­sions would be reas­signed to oth­er orga­ni­za­tions but should be retained in the Nor­folk-Suf­folk area of Virginia. 

Army Gen. Ray­mond T. Odier­no com­mands Joint Forces Com­mand, which is respon­si­ble for the military’s joint train­ing, doc­trine and oper­a­tions. In August, Gates said that with the depth of joint expe­ri­ence now estab­lished in the ser­vices through expe­ri­ence in Afghanistan, Iraq and around the world, the need for such a joint advo­cate has lessened. 

The mil­i­tary no longer requires a “sep­a­rate four-star com­bat­ant com­mand, which, in the case of [Joint Forces Com­mand] entails about 2,800 mil­i­tary and civil­ian posi­tions and rough­ly 3,000 con­trac­tors of all kinds at an annu­al cost of at least $240 mil­lion to oper­ate,” the sec­re­tary said. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →