Organization

Located at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb., U.S. Strategic Command is one of nine unified commands in the Department of Defense.

General Kevin P. Chilton is the commander, USSTRATCOM, and serves as the senior commander of unified military forces from all four branches of the military assigned to the command. The USSTRATCOM commander is the leader, steward and advocate of the nation's strategic capabilities. USSTRATCOM integrates and coordinates the necessary command and control capability to provide support with the most accurate and timely information for the President, the Secretary of Defense, other National Leadership and regional combatant commanders.

USSTRATCOM combines the synergy of the U.S. legacy nuclear command and control mission with responsibility for space operations; global strike; Defense Department information operations; global missile defense; and global command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR), and combating weapons of mass destruction. This dynamic command gives National Leadership a unified resource for greater understanding of specific threats around the world and the means to respond to those threats rapidly.

A command headquarters of more than 2,500 people, representing all four services, including Department of Defense civilians and contractors, oversees the command's operationally focused global strategic mission. The command is organized under a modified J-code structure as follows:

J0 The office of the Commander and the staff support agencies - J0 responsible for establishing the goals, mission, vision and leadership of the command. To help the commander, the immediate staff also includes the deputy commander in chief and a group of special advisors.

J1 (Manpower and Personnel) - develops and administers USSTRATCOM command manpower and personnel policies, human resources, and personnel assignment programs.

J3 (Global Operations) - coordinates the planning, employment and operation of DoD strategic assets and combines all current operations, global command and control and intelligence operations.

J2 (Intelligence) - apprises the commander of foreign situations and intelligence issues relevant to current operational interests and potential national security policies, objectives and strategy. This includes providing indications, warning and crisis intelligence support, supporting unified command intelligence requirements, developing doctrine, developing joint architecture, coordinating support requirements and providing targeting support.
J3B (Current Operations) - operates the Global Operations Center to provide the commander and the J3 with situational awareness, command and control, and integration across all mission areas. Conducts mission analysis, leads course of action development, and performs contingency and crisis action planning. Executes missions as directed by the Secretary of Defense and the President.
J4 (Logistics) - Plans, coordinates and executes logistics functions for mobility, maintenance, engineering, readiness and sustainment and munitions management in support of command missions.
J6 (C4 Systems) - coordinates, facilitates, monitors and assesses systems, networks and communications requirements.
J7 (Joint Exercises and Training) - Manages USSTRATCOM Commander's Joint Training Program and Exercise Program in order to ensure readiness to perform the Command's Missions

J5 (Plans and Policy) - responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of national security policy as it applies to the command and the execution of its mission. Develops future concepts and policy formulation for military space operations; global strike; information operations; global missile defense; and command and control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as outlined in the most recent Unified Command Plan. Integrates and synchronizes deliberate planning efforts across all USSTRATCOM missions. Prepares and maintains the nation's strategic nuclear war plan, and provides integrated global strike planning to deliver rapid, extended range, precision kinetic (nuclear and conventional) and non-kinetic (elements of space and information operations) effects in support of theater and national objectives. Performs day-to-day activities required for crisis-action and deliberate planning and execution, with updates to plans as necessary.

J8 (Capability and Resource Integration) - conducts force management and analysis to include integrating, coordinating, prioritizing, and advocating USSTRATCOM future concepts, mission capability needs, weapons system development, support for emerging technologies, and command and control architecture across the mission areas. Responsible for the articulation and development of all command requirement processes to ensure that USSTRATCOM has the tools to accomplish its mission, and ensures appropriate decision support tools and assessment processes are in place to enhance operational capabilities. The directorate includes comptroller support, concepts and experimentation, and force assessments.
USSTRATCOM exercises command authority over various task forces and service components in support of the command's mission. During day-to-day operations, service component commanders retain primary responsibility for maintaining the readiness of USSTRATCOM forces and performing their assigned functions. Their primary function is to provide organized, trained, and equipped forces for employment when called upon to support USSTRATCOM's global mission.

Global Innovation and Strategy Center (GISC) - The GISC mission is to produce knowledge discovery and shared understanding of strategic, operational and tactical perspectives to provide solutions to USSTRATCOM's toughest problems. The GISC is an academic facility that will bring together, in a cooperative effort, members of the public and private sector (military, political, academia, private sector, and media experts) and formalizes a process established soon after Sept. 11, 2001, with a focus on analyzing national and international security issues by leveraging expertise from the aforementioned elements of national power. This stimulates the development of innovative courses of action and comprehensive strategies to respond global threats against the United States.

As the Department of Defense's key advocate for global capabilities, the command has extensive ties with defense agencies, the Department of Energy's national laboratories, and other sources of support. Through its many contacts and interagency relationships, the command facilitates planning, enhances information sharing between the military and other government agencies and streamlines decision making.

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