United States Special Operations Command Central

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The USSOCCENT emblem.^[1]

The United States Special Operations Command Central^[2] (USSOCCENT or SOCCENT) is a subordinate unified command of joint forces for the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM). It is responsible for planning special operations throughout the USCENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR), planning and conducting peacetime joint/combined special operations training exercises, and orchestrating command and control of peacetime and wartime special operations as directed.

The command is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. SOCCENT FWD, Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC; pronounced SIFF-sock), is located at Camp As-Sayliyah in Qatar. The Command's motto is Molon labe^[3] (Greek for "Come and take them", supposedly said by King Leonidas I of Sparta before the Battle of Thermopylae).

According to the online edition of Special Operations Technology magazine,^[4] SOCCENT, operating with coalition partners as the CFSOCC, consists of two combined joint special operations task forces [CJSOTFs], one Combined Joint Special Operations Aviation Command (also referred to as 'Component'), which seems to be at Balad Air Base,^[5] one joint psychological operations task force, one Naval Special Warfare Unit and three Special Operations command and control elements [SOCCEs]. The two CJSOTFs are CJSOTF-Arabian Peninsula, whose headquarters directs United States Army Special Forces, and CJSOTF Afghanistan, whose headquarters has been provided in rotation by a number of Army Special Forces Groups, including the 3rd and the 19th.

It appears that SOCCENT does not direct the secretive Task Force 77, the ad-hoc grouping of Joint Special Operations Command 'black' units such as Delta Force, supported by Special Operations light infantry, mostly United States Army Rangers, which is tasked to pursue the most sensitive high value targets such as Al Qaeda and the Taliban leadership since September 11, 2001. Rather TF 77, which started out as Task Force 11 and has gone through a number of name/number changes, reports directly to Joint Special Operations Command.