Standing Joint Force Headquarters

Standing Joint Force Headquarters (abbreviated as SJFHQ) were developed and fielded as a command and control weapon system. The principal improvements delivered by the SJFHQ core element are its coherently joint structure, its standing availability, the application of information age technologies, and its employment of advanced warfighting concepts. By current design, the SJFHQ will be a full-time, trained and equipped, joint command and control element—attached to each geographic combatant commander's (GCC's) staff. The SJFHQ reduces the ad hoc nature of implementing a joint task force headquarters in response to crises. Notably, it allows the combatant commander to more rapidly establish joint task forces and to better understand the battlespace before he uses his forces, thus giving him an advantage of time, perhaps his most critical resource. Standing Joint Force Headquarters also improves the joint force commanders's ability to integrate air, land, maritime, and special operations forces and incorporates the ability to integrate the full range of national power capabilities. Members of the SJFHQ work together to develop when possible a pre-crisis understanding of the potential operational environment. The intent is to enable the joint force commander to use this understanding to plan and execute operations that preclude military crises or that result in decisive military operations in support of or supported by the other elements of national power.