A task force (TF) is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology. Many non-military organizations now create "task forces" or task groups for temporary activities that might have once been performed by ad hoc committees.
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In U.S. terminology, now widely adopted, including by NATO, the term Joint implies the combination of more than one military service (i.e. some combination of army, naval and/or air forces). Therefore a Joint Task Force (JTF) is a TF which includes more than one service.
A joint task force (JTF) is a joint force that is constituted and so designated by a JTF establishing authority. A JTF establishing authority may be the Secretary of Defense or the commander of a combatant command, subordinate unified command, or existing JTF. In most situations, the JTF establishing authority will be a combatant commander. JTFs are established on a geographical area or functional basis when the mission has a specific limited objective and does not require overall centralized control of logistics.
In the US, the National Guard Bureau requires each state to designate a Joint Task Force that is able to mobilize to provide command and control for all assigned state military assets deployed in support of civilian authorities during a stateside incident.[1]
Examples include Joint Task Force Bravo, Joint Task Force Guantanamo, Joint Task Force Lebanon, and Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations.
Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2) is the Canadian Forces' elite special forces unit. However, it is not temporary but permanent, and does not fit with the US Combined Communication-Electronics Board system (TF 2 remains allocated to the United States). Thus while it is called a Joint Task Force and it does involve personnel from all three services (Army, Navy, and Air Force, therefore "Joint") it is not temporary (therefore not a "Task Force" by the US definition). It is known to have fought in Afghanistan and was part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
In U.S. terminology, now widely adopted, including by NATO, the term combined implies more than one nation. At the start of World War II, the UK used "Combined" to denote forces composed of more than one service, which is how the Combined Operations term originated. However they soon adopted the U.S. usage, and organizations were named accordingly, for example, the Combined Chiefs of Staff. Today a Combined Task Force (CTF) is a task force which includes sub-elements of more than one nation.
An example is Combined Task Force 151.
A Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) is a task force which includes elements of more than one service and elements of more than one nation. Examples include Combined Joint Task Force 76 and Task Force Viking.
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The concept of a naval task force is as old as navies, but the term came into extensive use originally by the U.S. Navy around the beginning of 1941, as a way to increase operational flexibility. Prior to that time the assembly of ships for naval operations was referred to as fleets, divisions, or on the smaller scale, squadrons, and flotillas.
Before World War II ships were collected into divisions derived from the Royal Navy's "division" of the line of battle in which one squadron usually remained under the direct command of the Admiral of the Fleet, one squadron was commanded by a Vice Admiral, and one by a Rear Admiral, each of the three squadrons flying different coloured flags, hence the terms flagship and flag officer. The flag of the Fleet Admiral's squadron was red, the Vice Admiral's was white and the Rear Admiral's blue. (The names "Vice" (possibly from advanced) and "Rear" might have derived from sailing positions within the line at the moment of engagement.) In the late 19th century ships were collected in numbered squadrons, which were assigned to named (such as the Asiatic Fleet) and later numbered fleets.
A task force can be assembled using ships from different divisions and squadrons, without requiring a formal and permanent fleet reorganization, and can be easily dissolved following completion of the operational task. The task force concept worked very well, and by the end of World War II about 100 task forces had been created in the U.S. Navy alone.
These are temporary call signs designated to particular ship/ships assigned to fulfill certain missions. CTF can be read as "Commander Task Force" or "Carrier Task Force" while TF is Task Force. Likewise the force is broken down as following: task force, task group, task unit and task element.
In the U.S. Navy each task force was assigned a two-digit number, and this has become a common world-wide practice. The first digit was originally the number of the fleet, while the second historically differentiated between task forces from the same fleet. It was typically abbreviated, so references like TF 11 are commonly seen. In addition, a task force could be broken into several task groups,[2] identified by decimal points, as in TG 11.2, and finally task units, as in TU 11.2.1. Individual ships are task elements, for example TE 11.2.1.2 would be the second ship in TU 11.2.1.
Some US Navy task forces in World War II:
Also, Task Force 77 was the large Carrier Task Force in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War.
The U.S. Navy still uses numbered task forces, and the U.S. Department of Defense often forms a joint task force if the force includes units from other services. In naval terms, the multinational Australian/US/UK/Canadian/NZ Combined Communications Electronics Board mandates through Allied Communications Publication 113 (ACP 113) the present system, which allocated numbers from TF 1 to apparently TF 999.[3] For example, the Royal Navy's Illustrious battle group in 2000 for Exercise Linked Seas, subsequently deployed to Operation Palliser, was Task Group 342.1.[4] The French Navy is allocated the series TF 470–474, and Task Force 473 has been used recently for an Enduring Freedom task force deployment built around the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (R91). Task Force 142 is the U.S. Navy's Operational Test and Evaluation Force.
Note that there is no requirement for uniqueness over time. For instance, there was a TF 76 in World War II, and a different TF 76 during the War in Vietnam, as a part of the Seventh Fleet.
Earlier in the Second World War, the British Royal Navy had devised its own similar system of Forces, which were assigned a letter rather than a number. For example, the force stationed at Gibraltar was known as Force H, the force stationed at Malta was known as Force K, and the force stationed at Singapore in December 1941 was known as Force Z.
During the Falklands War in 1982 Royal Navy assembled a Task Force to achieve sea and air supremacy in the Total Exclusion Zone, before the amphibious forces arrived. The Argentine Navy formed three lesser Task Groups (Grupo de Tareas) for pincer movements.
In the U.S. Army, a task force is a battalion-sized (usually, although there are variations in size) ad hoc unit formed by attaching smaller elements of other units. A company-sized unit with an armored or mechanized infantry unit attached is called a company team. A similar unit at the brigade level is called a brigade combat team (BCT), and there is also a larger Regimental combat team (RCT).
In the British Army and the armies of other Commonwealth countries, such units are known as battlegroups.
In government or business a task force is temporary organization created to solve a particular problem. It is considered to be a more formal ad-hoc committee.
A taskforce, or more-commonly task force, is a special committee, usually of experts, formed expressly for the purpose of studying a particular problem. The task force usually performs some sort of an audit to assess the current situation, then draws up a list of all the current problems present and evaluates which ones merit fixing and which ones are actually fixable. The task force would then formulate a set of solutions to the problems and pick the "best" solution to each problem, as determined by some set of standards. For example, a task force set up to eliminate excessive government spending might consider a "best" solution to be one that saves the most money. Normally, the task force then presents its findings and proposed solutions to the institution that called for its formation; it is then up to the institution itself to actually act upon the task force's recommendations.