Major Commands of the United States Army

A Major Command of the United States Army ( MAJCOM; dt. About: Main Command or High Command) is an organizational unit of the US Army . The twelve major commands each take on clearly defined tasks and complement one another. They are divided into Army Commands and Army Service Component Commands, which are command posts that are subordinate to the higher-level Unified Combatant Commands . There are nine Army Service Component Commands, which are divided into five regional and four functional commands.

The MAJCOMs are to be distinguished from the Direct Reporting Units (Eng. "Directly subordinate units"), which are also high command structures, but are only located at the divisional level and are not subject to any major commands . Instead, these command posts report directly to the Chief of Staff of the Army and his headquarters.

Major Commands

Army commands

The US Army has three army commands of its own, which act as command authorities and coordination points and are tailored to the specific needs of this branch of the armed forces . The other branches of the armed forces coordinate their tasks in their own but similar structures. These are:

• US Army Materiel Command (AMC), responsible for the procurement and provision of materials, weapons, technology and logistics , as well as material requirements planning with headquarters in Fort Belvoir , Virginia , and under the leadership of General Gustave F. Perna
• U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), headquartered in Fort Monroe , Virginia, under the command of General David G. Perkins , is responsible for training and operational training and planning
• US Army Forces Command (FORSCOM), responsible for the training, mobilization, deployment, support, transformation , and reorganization of the conventional forces of the US Army, headquartered in Fort McPherson , Georgia , under the command of General Daniel B. Allyn .

The US Army Forces Command is special. On the one hand, it functions as a command post for the US Army itself and, on the other hand, it represents the army component of the US Joint Forces Command , i.e. it operates as a functional Army Service Component Command . The commander of FORSCOM is also the commander of the US Army North , the land component of the US Northern Command regional command .

Army Service Component Commands

The US Army is fully integrated into the US Department of Defense's Unified Combatant Commands (UCC) system. The army subdivisions of the UCCs are called Army Service Component Commands (ASCC). Accordingly, the US Army has five regional and four functional commands. In contrast, the locations of the command facilities are predominantly decentralized, which means that they are not necessarily at the same location as the UCCs.

Regional commands

Responsibilities of the Unified Combatant Commands

• The US Army South (USARSOUTH) is the Army component of the US Southern Command . She is responsible for all activities of the US Army in Latin America and is also stationed at Fort Sam Houston .
• The 3rd US Army functions as US Army Forces Central Command (ARCENT) as an Army component of US Central Command (CENTCOM). The 3rd US Army has its headquarters in Fort McPherson in the US state of Georgia.
• The US Army North (USARNORTH; formerly 5th US Army) is subordinate to the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM). Their headquarters are in Fort Sam Houston, Texas .
• The US Army Pacific (USARPAC) forms the Army component of the US Pacific Command (PACOM) and has its headquarters in Fort Shafter , Hawaii .

Two ASCCs have the peculiarity of being both a component command and a major military unit :

• The 7th US Army acts as US Army Europe (USAREUR) as a land component of the US European Command (EUCOM) and is stationed at the Shali Center in Wiesbaden .
• The 8th US Army (EUSA) is part of the command post responsible for all US troops in South Korea , the US Forces Korea and stationed in Yong Son ( Yongsan Army Garrison ) near Seoul . It is operationally subordinate to the commander of the US Pacific Command, but is territorially bound to the area of ​​the Korean Peninsula . This means that the commander of PACOM not these forces deploy can.

Functional commands

• The US Army Space and Missile Defense Command / Army Strategic Command (SMDC / ARSTRAT) is part of the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM). It is located in Arlington County , Virginia.
• The US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) forms the army component of the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). It unites the Special Operations Forces of the US Army.
• The US Army Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) is the Army component of the US Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) based in Fort Eustis near Newport News , Virginia.

Web links

• Organizational Structure of the Major Commands (English)