Combined Joint Expeditionary Force

Combined Joint Expeditionary Force
France and the United Kingdom and territories
Founded	2010
Countries	France  United Kingdom
Type	Expeditionary Force
Role	Combat operations
HQ	Combined Joint Force Headquarters
Components	Maritime component Land component Air component Logistics component

The Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF) is a Franco-British military force. It draws upon both the British Armed Forces and the French Armed Forces to field a deployable force with land, air and maritime components together with command and control and supporting logistics. It is distinct from the similarly named UK Joint Expeditionary Force.

The Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (or CJEF) is envisaged as a deployable, combined Franco-British military force for use in a wide range of crisis scenarios, up to and including high intensity combat operations. As a joint force it involves all three armed services: a land component composed of formations at national brigade level, maritime and air components with their associated headquarters, together with logistics and support functions.

The CJEF is not conceived as a standing force but rather as available at notice for UK-French bilateral, NATO, European Union, United Nations or other operations. Combined air and land exercises commenced during 2011 with a view towards developing a full capability. The CJEF is also seen as a potential stimulus towards greater interoperability and coherence in military doctrine, training and equipment requirements.

Background

On the 2 November 2010, President Sarkozy and Prime Minister David Cameron signed the Downing Street declaration. Part of this declaration involved the creation of a Franco-British Combined Joint Expeditionary Force. The two governments described this as follows:

We will develop a Combined Joint Expeditionary Force suitable for a wide range of scenarios, up to and including high intensity operations. It will involve all three Services: there will be a land component comprised of formations at national brigade level, maritime and air components with their associated Headquarters, and logistics and support functions. It will not involve standing forces but will be available at notice for bilateral, NATO, European Union, United Nations or other operations. We will begin with combined air and land exercises during 2011 and will develop the concept before the next UK-France Summit and progress towards full capability in subsequent years. The Force will stimulate greater interoperability and coherence in military doctrine, training and equipment requirements.^[1]

User Guide

The UK and French defence ministries have jointly produced a User Guide (in English) to assist military staff operating at the operational and higher tactical levels of CJEF operations. This guide, jointly developed by the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre at Shrivenham, UK, and the Centre Interarmées de Concepts, de Doctrine et d'Expérimentations in Paris, has been published on the French Ministry of Defence website.^[2] The information in this article is sourced from this user guide, unless stated otherwise.

CJEF Capability and Tasks

The CJEF is seen as being able to conduct offensive and defensive operations on land, in the air, and at sea. It is designed to be rapidly deployable and, once ready in theatre, to be sustainable for up to three months of operations as a stand-alone force; as well as having the ability to include other nations as coalition partners. The UK and France see the following as the most likely tasks for the CJEF:

• crisis management, involving early entry into a potentially hostile territory (including the initial enforcement of no-fly zones, embargoes and sanctions);
• the protection of shared national interests abroad;
• extraction operations;
• non-combatant evacuation operations;
• the temporary strengthening of a peacekeeping operation; and
• support to emergency humanitarian assistance.

Structure of CJEF

The CJEF comprises strategic, operational and tactical level Command and Control elements, together with deployable sea, land, air and logistical components.

Command & Control

At the strategic level Command and Control (C2) is exercised via a CJEF Current Commitments Team (CCT) which takes its direction jointly from the UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff and France’s Chef d’État Major des Armées.

The CJEF CCT provides strategic military direction to the CJEF Operational Headquarters (OHQ) which, depending on circumstances, is to be based either in the UK at PJHQ Northwood or in France at Fort Mont-Valérien.

The OHQ carries out operational level planning with the conduct of the operation being commanded by the deployed tactical headquarters the Combined Joint Force Headquarters (CJFHQ). The C2 arrangements are summarised as follows:

• Strategic level – CJEF Current Commitments Team (CCT)
• Operational level – CJEF Operational Headquarters (OHQ)
• Tactical level – deployable Combined Joint Force Headquarters (CJFHQ), and as required:

1. Combined Logistics Support Group (CLSG) headquarters.
2. Maritime component commander.
3. Land component commander.
4. Air component commander.

Deployable Components

The CJEF is planned to be able to deploy maritime, land, and air components with the CJFHQ commanding these either directly or via individual component commanders.

• A maritime component of up to a naval task group based on one or more capital ships, with the maritime forces required to conduct a particular CJEF operation being primarily depend on the circumstances. The component may include any combination of UK and French maritime assets gathered in a task group, and commanded from a UK/French combined headquarters that could be led by either nation.

• A scalable land component of at least a UK battle-group and a French battle-group. It is to be capable of conducting non-enduring, complex intervention operations, facing multiple threats up to high intensity. It is planned as a high-readiness force using existing national high readiness force elements – including lead elements at very short notice.

• An air component comprising an expeditionary air wing that is self-sufficient and capable of being generated within 10 days of activation. This will include all air assets across the full spectrum of air power roles. It is envisaged that the air component will be able to deliver the full spectrum of air effects.

• A logistics component with which the UK and France envisage collaborating to share the logistics support of the CJEF. Cooperative logistic planning is foreseen as commencing at the earliest opportunity and logistic operations will typically be commanded by a Combined Logistics Support Group headquarters, subordinate to the CJTF headquarters.

Progress in developing the CJEF

At the UK and French summits of 2012 and 2014, both governments jointly issued information on the progress towards the development of the CJEF.

Progress to 2012

Post the UK-French NATO action against Libya the 17 February 2012 Franco-British summit communiqué^[3] gave considerably more detail on the progress towards the CJEF announced the establishment of a deployable Combined Joint Force Headquarters to command the CJEF. It also announced that the CJEF was planned to achieve full operational capability in 2016.

Progress to 2014

Progress towards the CJEF was again mentioned in the declaration on security and defence^[4] following the 31 January 2014, UK-France summit. It was also announced that a Combined Logistics Support Group would be created to support the deployed CJEF.

Relationship to European Union Defence Policy

While the CJEF may, with both French and UK government agreement, be used for European Union (EU) tasks it is not formally part of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. It does not use the separate Lisbon Treaty’s Permanent Structured Cooperation facility, nor involve the European Defence Agency.

See also

• Entente frugale
• Eurocorps
• Franco-German Brigade
• NATO
• Response Force Task Group
• UK Joint Expeditionary Force
• Joint Rapid Reaction Force
• Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

References