Joint Forces Command to be cut?

If the Associated Press is to be believed here:

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Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year.

The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.

The Associated Press has learned that Joint Forces Command will be eliminated and its role absorbed elsewhere within the Defense Department. Gates has long said the Pentagon needs to reduce waste and duplication.

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More details here in Stars and Stripes.

They have been discussing it locally for a couple weeks, but I see @usjfcom listing job openings on Twitter...

Via the press briefing here's SECDEF Gates decisions:


1. Reduce the funding for support contractor personnel by 10 percent a year for the next three years.

2. Freeze number of Office of the Secretary of Defense, defense agency and combatant command manpower positions at the fiscal 2010 levels for the next three years.

3. Freeze the number of senior Defense Department leaders at fiscal 2010 levels. Expect this effort to cut at least 50 general and flag officer positions and 150 senior civilian executive positions over the next two years.

4. Increase the use of common information technology functions within DoD.

5. Freeze overall number of required oversight reports, cut by a quarter the money allocated to these reports.

6. Eliminate boards and commissions no longer needed and cut overall funding by 25 percent for these boards and commissions.

7. Immediate 10 percent cut in funding for intelligence advisory and assistance contracts and a freeze in the number of senior executive service positions. Also moving to end needless duplication in the DoD intelligence community.

8. Eliminate the offices of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Network Integration and the Joint Staff’s section for command, control, communications, and computer systems.

9. Eliminate the Business Transformation Agency.

10. Eliminate U.S. Joint Forces Command.

So we (JFCOM J7) were at J6 (JFCOM) today briefing a project we have been working on with DISA. The moment we were done, our fearless leader comes on the tv and drops the bomb. Never seen the wind go out of the sails so fast!

Of all the excellent times to release 5000 people into the dole, right when no one is hiring. Thanks Bob!

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Originally Posted by Stevely

So we (JFCOM J7) were at J6 (JFCOM) today briefing a project we have been working on with DISA. The moment we were done, our fearless leader comes on the tv and drops the bomb. Never seen the wind go out of the sails so fast!

Of all the excellent times to release 5000 people into the dole, right when no one is hiring. Thanks Bob!

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Concur.... :mad: :( :confused:

Does the SECDEF "really" have the authority to do disband JFCOM without Congress's endorsement? To clarify I agree with the decisions for the most part, but wonder how it will play out when Norfolk and the political aparatus associated with start making noise about the negative economic impact on their region? I know the BRAC decisions dragged out for years (and if I'm not mistaken are still being implemented). I don't know how this works, so hoping someone in the community out there does.

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Originally Posted by Global Scout

Does the SECDEF "really" have the authority to do disband JFCOM without Congress's endorsement? To clarify I agree with the decisions for the most part, but wonder how it will play out when Norfolk and the political aparatus associated with start making noise about the negative economic impact on their region? I know the BRAC decisions dragged out for years (and if I'm not mistaken are still being implemented). I don't know how this works, so hoping someone in the community out there does.

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It does have to go past Congress, and the Virginia representation have signaled they are going to fight it. However, the President has already publicly stated his support (heard it on NPR this morning). I doubt Virginia will have the clout to stop this, unless they can drag a decision out past November.

each has not only a ceiling but also a floor on civilian end-strength. IOW, DoD cannot just eliminate positions, they require Congressional consent to go below the floor. What that means is that IF this happens, the civilian spaces must generally be absorbed elsewhere in DoD and preferably in the Hampton Roads area. The Military people will be reassigned so the major loss is really in JFCom's functional areas -- and there are certainly dozens of organizations that would be eager to garner potential spaces by absorbing those functions.

Congress may allow a Reduction in Force but the rules are mind boggling. Given the state of the economy and the jobless rate, I sense another Inside the Beltway budget game as opposed to a genuine desire to just chop one of the newer headquarters. Not that we don't have too many of those...:wry: