A joint task force is a "joint" (multi-service) ad hoc military formation. The task force concept originated with the United States Navy in the 1920s and 1930s.[1]
"Combined" is the British-American military term for multi-national formations.
- CTF – Commander Task Force, sometimes Combined Task Force
- CCTF – Commander Combined Task Force
- CJTF – Combined Joint Task Force
There are two ways in which a U.S. or U.S.-allied task force may be assigned a number.[2] The first is the originally naval scheme promulgated and governed by the Military Command, Control, Communications, and Computers Executive Board (MC4EB), chaired by the Joint Staff J6. Task force numbers allocated under this scheme form the majority of the listings below.
The second is a by-product of the U.S. Army's procedure for forming task-organised forces for combat, differing from strictly doctrinally assigned table of organization and equipment organizations. A battalion, company or brigade commander has very wide latitude in selecting a task force name,[3] though often the name of the commander is used (e.g. Task Force Faith; Task Force Smith was named for the commander of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment). This has often resulted in derivations from the originator unit's numerical designation being used. For example, when a special operations aviation unit was being formed in the late 1970s, the original unit drew heavily on personnel from the 158th Aviation. The designation chosen was Task Force 158, which later grew to become the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Another example comes from 2004 in Afghanistan. On 15 April 2004 the headquarters of the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division arrived in Afghanistan and took command of CJTF-180 from the 10th Mountain Division. Lieutenant General David Barno, commanding then decided to rename CJTF 180 because the “180” designation had traditionally been given to Joint task forces led by the Army's XVIII Airborne Corps. Barno chose Combined Joint Task Force 76 as the new name to evoke America's history and the democratic spirit of 1776.[4] The CFC-A commander intended this new designation to highlight the change in command at the operational level at a time when Afghanistan appeared to be moving closer to democracy.
No coordination appears to occur between U.S. Army task forces designated in this way, and the USMCEB scheme. This has resulted in simultaneous designations being used at the same time. For example, Combined Joint Task Force 76, was in use in Afghanistan in 2004, but doubling up on the Task Force 76 designation used for decades by Amphibious Force, United States Seventh Fleet, in north Asia.
Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX)[5] is designed to test a strike group's ability to operate in hostile and complex environments with other U.S. and coalition forces. The integrated exercise combines specific warfare areas with the purpose of making preparations for the strike group's upcoming deployment. An example of such an exercise includes The John F. Kennedy (CV-67) Carrier Battle Group which participated in Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX) 02–1,[6] in the waters off the East Coast as well as on training ranges in North Carolina and Florida during Operation Enduring Freedom January 19, 2002
- ^ Robinson 2020, p. 109.
- ^ Robinson 2020, pp. 109–110.
- ^ See Larry Bond, 'Cauldron' (fiction) or Hackworth, 'About Face'.
- ^ Lieutenant General David W. Barno, interview by Center for Military History, 21 November 2006, 31–32, in A Different Kind of War.
- ^ Whitfield, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Nichelle N. "Nimitz Carrier Strike Group Completes JTFEX". www.cpf.navy.mil. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "US Navy in Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001-2002". NHHC. Retrieved 2021-03-06.