ISSUE 182 : Jul/Aug - 2010 - Australian Defence Force Journal

• European Command (EUCOM)• Central Command (CENTCOM)• Pacific Command (PACOM), and• Africa Command (AFRICOM). 10Each of these is structured along component lines with army, navy, air force and special forcescomponents. The global coverage of the six areas of responsibility (see Figure 1) reflects thecontemporary reality that the US has global interests and that its armed forces have a globalpresence. Indeed, in 2004 the US had a uniformed military presence in over 140 countries. 11The five GCCs, other than NORTHCOM, presently have over 400,000 military personnelallocated or assigned to them—that is, over 30 per cent of the active duty total. 12 Of thisfigure, almost 280,000 are based in a foreign country or afloat, while an additional 270,000are assigned to CENTCOM mainly for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In all, this representsa very significant ‘forward’ presence of US military power. 13Figure 1. The Geographic Combatant Command areas of responsibility 14In addition to the GCCs, the UCP since the mid 1980s has also designated ‘functional’ combatantcommands to support the GCCs, organising capabilities that are more efficiently and effectivelymanaged centrally. The current UCP designates the following functional combatant commands:• Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), tasked with providing strategic air, land and seatransportation to the DoD.• Special Operations Command (SOCOM), tasked with commanding all active and reservespecial operations forces, US Army psychological operations and civil affairs forces. SOCOMhas also been designated as the supported combatant command for the global war onterrorism. 1573