Commander-in-Chief Fleet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2008)

Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET) is the admiral responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the British Royal Navy. CINC is subordinate to the First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Naval Service.

Full command of all deployable Fleet units, including the Royal Marines and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, is delegated to Commander-in-Chief Fleet, currently Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, with his Command Headquarters at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth and his Operational Headquarters at Northwood, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, co-located with the Permanent Joint Headquarters and a NATO Regional Command, Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood. CINCFLEET is dual-hatted as Commander AMCCN.

CINCFLEET is supported by:

Second Sea Lord, based in HMS Excellent, Principal Personnel Officer for the Naval Service. Also Rear Admiral Fleet Air Arm.
Deputy CINCFLEET, based in HMS Excellent, who commands the HQ
Commander Operations, based at Northwood, responsible for operational command of RN assets. Also Rear Admiral Submarines and Commander Submarine Allied Forces North (NATO)
Commander UK Maritime Forces, the deployable Force Commander responsible for the Maritime Battle Staffs; UK Task Group, UK Amphibious Task Group, UK Maritime Component Command.
Commander UK Amphibious Force/ Commandant General Royal Marines

1 History of the Commanders-in-Chief
2 NATO commitment
3 List of Commanders-in-Chief Fleet
4 References

[edit] History of the Commanders-in-Chief

Historically, the Royal Navy was usually split into several commands, each with a Commander-in-Chief (e.g. Commander-in-Chief Plymouth, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet, etc). There now remain only two Commanders-in-Chief, the various fleet commands being unified under Commander-in-Chief Fleet and the various home commands being unified under Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command.

In 1971, with the withdrawal from of British forces from East of Suez, the Far East and Western fleets of the Royal Navy were unified under a single Commander-in-Chief Fleet, initially based in HMS Warrior, a land base in Northwood, Middlesex. This continued the trend of shore-basing the home naval command that had started in 1960, when the Home Fleet command was transferred ashore. The majority of the staff have now transferred to a new facility in HMS Excellent.

The Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command (CINCNAVHOME) is also been known as the Second Sea Lord (2SL) and is responsible for the shore-based establishments and manpower of the Royal Navy, and is based in Portsmouth. The Second Sea Lord and his staff were formerly resident in Victory Building, Portsmouth Dockyard, and he formally flies his flag aboard HMS Victory.

In 2006 the staffs of CINCFLEET and CINCNAVHOME merged, with the majority of CINCNAVHOME's staff joining the CINCFLEET staff in Excellent.

[edit] NATO commitment

The post has also come with various NATO appointments since its creation, including:

Commander in Chief Channel (until 1994)

The NATO Handbook, accessible in 1993, described the Channel Command in the following words:^[1]

CINCHAN's subordinate commanders include Commander Allied Maritime Air Force, Channel; Commander Nore Sub-Area Channel; Commander Plymouth Sub-Area, Channel; and Commander Benelux Sub-Area, Channel. CINCHAN also has under his command the NATO Standing Naval Force Channel (STANAVFOR- CHAN), a permanent force mainly comprising mine countermeasure vessels.

A Channel Committee consisting of the naval Chiefs-of-Staff of Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom serves as an advisory and consultative body to the Commander-in-Chief, Channel.