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United States Central Command
February 13, 2020
According to the U.S. Unified Command Plan, the
Department of Defense (DOD) document that articulates the
division of operational responsibilities amongst the 11
Combatant Commands (CoCOMs), United States Central
Command (CENTCOM) has command authority over U.S.
forces in the Middle East and West/Central Asia.
CENTCOM was formally established by DOD on January 1,
1983. Its area of responsibility (AOR) comprises Egypt,
Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar,
United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Iran, Turkmenistan,
Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Accordingly, its geography spans
more than 4 million square miles and is populated by more
than 550 million people from 22 ethnic groups, speaking 18
languages with hundreds of dialects and professing multiple
religions that transcend national borders. Headquartered at
MacDill Air Force Base (AFB) in Tampa, Florida,
CENTCOM is commanded by Marine Corps General
Kenneth F. McKenzie, who previously served as the
Director of Strategic Plans and Policy in the Joint Staff.
As with other CoCOMs, CENTCOM is a headquarters; no
military units are permanently assigned to it. CENTCOM
operates through component commands one for each of
the U.S. armed services, along with a joint special
operations component. Each component command may or
may not have military forces assigned to it in theater.
* U.S. Army Central (ARCENT): ARCENT is
headquartered at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, and has a
forward headquarters in Kuwait.
* U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT):
NAVCENT has its headquarters in Manama, Bahrain,
the home of the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
* U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT):
AFCENT is also headquartered at Shaw AFB, South
Carolina, and has a forward headquarters in Qatar.
* U.S. Marine Corps Forces Central Command
(MARCENT): MARCENT has its headquarters at
MacDill AFB, Florida.
* U.S. Special Operations Command Central
(SOCCENT): SOCCENT is headquartered at MacDill
AFB, Florida, and maintains a forward headquarters in
Qatar.
CENTCOM's military operations and activities are informed
by the 2017 National Security Strategy and 2018 National
Defense Strategy. In the Trump Administration's view,
effectively competing economically, diplomatically, and
militarily with China and Russia is the key national
security challenge facing the United States today. Activities
that can bolster the United States within this competition are
therefore to be prioritized over other strategic challenges,
including countering violent extremist groups such as al
Qaeda and the Islamic State, both of which have been
critical challenges in the CENTCOM AOR for decades.
Some observers contend that a shift in U.S. resources away
from the CENTCOM AOR and toward Europe and Asia is
therefore necessary. In his 2019 posture statement, General
Votel, the former Commander of CENTCOM, argued that
he was laying the foundation for that reprioritization, noting,
[CENTCOM] will not be the main effort of our nation's
scarce resources in perpetuity.
Nevertheless, Iran remains a central challenge to the United
States, its allies and its interests in the CENTCOM AOR. In
recent months, Iran has become an increasingly militarily
assertive as it tries to compel the Trump Administration to
ease sanctions. Iran and the United States have carried out
strikes on each other's personnel, and Iran has been linked
to attacks on U.S. partners and international energy
shipments. These developments have led some observers to
question whether the proposed strategic reprioritization of
threats, including the redirection of assets and capabilities
away from the CENTCOM AOR, is feasible. Others contend
that despite these developments with Iran, the United States
should reduce its strategic emphasis on the region given the
scale of the challenges posed by China and Russia. Still
others contend that force planning concepts like dynamic
force employment-that is, the ability to rapidly shift key
U.S. military assets from one theater to another mitigate
some of the risk associated with diverting resources away
from CENTCOM.
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DOD budget documentation does not break out total funding
by COCOM. Forces and operations assigned to the
commands are, in general, funded by the military services
(either in their regular, or base, budgets or with funding
designated for Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO).
COCOM funding is, with some exceptions, limited to
Operation and Maintenance (O&M) accounts for
headquarters and mission support activities. In the case of
CENTCOM, the U.S. Air Force is the Combatant Command
Support Agent (CCSA) and primarily responsible for
funding its headquarters.
For FY2021, the Air Force requested approximately $313.1
million in the O&M budget subactivity group (SAG) for
Combatant Command Mission Operations USCENTCOM,
including $186.1 million in base budget funding and $126.9
million in OCO funding. For the same fiscal year, DOD
requested $20.5 billion in OCO funding for direct war costs
associated with operations in the CENTCOM AOR,
including Operation Freedom's Sentinel (OFS) primarily in
Afghanistan and Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)
primarily in Iraq and Syria.
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