Unified Command Plan (UCP)

Presidential document establishing combatant commands, their missions, geographic/functional responsibilities, and force assignments. Updated approximately every two years.

The Unified Command Plan is the instrument that carries out 10 U.S.C. § 161, under which the President, through the Secretary of Defense and with the advice and assistance of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, establishes the unified and specified combatant commands and prescribes their force structure, with the Chairman required by § 161(b) to review each command’s missions, responsibilities and force structure not less often than every two years, as mapped at Title_10_Structure.

Current Combatant Commands (11)

Geographic Combatant Commands (GCCs)

Command	AOR	HQ
USINDOPACOM	Indo-Pacific	Camp Smith, HI
USEUCOM	Europe	Stuttgart, Germany
USCENTCOM	Middle East/Central Asia	MacDill AFB, FL
USAFRICOM	Africa	Stuttgart, Germany
USSOUTHCOM	Central/South America	Doral, FL
USNORTHCOM	North America	Peterson SFB, CO

Functional Combatant Commands (FCCs)

Command	Function	HQ
USSOCOM	Special Operations	MacDill AFB, FL
USSTRATCOM	Strategic Deterrence/Nuclear	Offutt AFB, NE
USTRANSCOM	Global Mobility	Scott AFB, IL
USCYBERCOM	Cyberspace Operations	Fort Meade, MD
USSPACECOM	Space Operations	Peterson SFB, CO

Command Relationships

graph TD
    POTUS[President] --> SecDef[Secretary of Defense]
    SecDef --> GCC1[Geographic COCOMs]
    SecDef --> FCC1[Functional COCOMs]
    GCC1 --> SCC[Service Component Commands]
    GCC1 --> JTF[Joint Task Forces]
    FCC1 --> TSC[Theater Special Ops Commands]

See Also

• Goldwater_Nichols_Act | Title_10_USC | COCOM_Structure