Northwood_Headquarters

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Northwood Headquarters Northwood Headquarters Coordinates: 51°37′10″N 0°24′34″W / 51.61944°N 0.40944°W / 51.61944; -0.40944 Northwood Headquarters is a military headquarters facility of the British Armed Forces in Eastbury, Three Rivers, Hertfordshire, England. It is home to three command and control functions of the British armed forces and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); Permanent Joint Headquarters, Commander in Chief Fleet and the NATO Regional Command, Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood. Permanent Joint Headquarters Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) is a tri-service organisation holding Operational Control of British armed forces joint military operation. PJHQ is headed by the Chief of Joint Operations. Single-service operations remain under the OPCON of the appropriate front-line command. Royal Navy Northwood, as HMS Warrior, was the flagship of the Royal Navy’s Commander in Chief Fleet from April 1963,[1] shortly after the transfer of the Home Fleet ashore in 1960. Following the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentinian forces in 1982, CINCFLEET was given command of the operation to recover the islands. The Operation was directed from Northwood with CINCFLEET staff augmented by personnel from corresponding Land Command and Strike Command headquarters. In 2002, following a rationalisation, CINCFLEET moved the majority of the staff to Portsmouth, moving into HMS Excellent in 2004. Commander Operations remains with the current operations staff on the Northwood site and CINCFLEET retains an office in addition to the Portsmouth location. Commander Operations is also commander of the corresponding NATO regional HQ. History The British armed forces first arrived on the site in 1939, when Eastbury Park, Northwood, became the Headquarters of RAF Coastal Command[1]. It was in fact the RAF who started going underground to build their Headquarters. In 1953 the NATO Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic Area, who was also Commander-in-Chief Fleet, established his Headquarters at Northwood[1]. In April 1963 the Naval unit at Northwood was commissioned as HMS Warrior and in September 1971 the Royal Navy took over responsibility for the whole site. In 1978 the Flag Officer Submarines also moved his Headquarters to Northwood[1]. As HQ of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet the site was the controlling Headquarters for Operation Corporate, the Falklands War.[2] The site falls under the authority of Chief of Joint Operations following a handover from the Commander-in-Chief Fleet in 2002. In 2006 major construction works commenced to improve the functionality of the site: the works, which involve the refurbishment or replacement of many of the key buildings for the Permanent Joint Headquarters, are being carried under under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Carillion. The main entrance to the base is located on Watford Road, Northwood. NATO and the EU The NATO regional command, Allied Maritime Component Command Northwood, an element of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, is based in the site. Commander AMCCN is CINCFLEET Commander Operations. Previously AMCCN was designed Commander-in-Chief Eastern Atlantic (CINCEASTLANT) as part of Allied Command Atlantic. AMCCN provides the Northern Maritime command element of AJFCB to Allied Command Operations. 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A headquarters structure is available for the command of European Union military operation. Personnel to support this structure would be seconded from existing NATO and national posts in the site, augumented from elsewhere as required. Northwood Headquarters • A detachment of Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines personnel providing force protection. References [1] ^ Northwood history accessed 23 Oct 06 [2] Naval-History.org British Task Force Units accessed 23 Oct 06 Support units The three Headquarters Staffs are supported by: • Joint Support Unit Northwood, providing administrative support, life support, facilities and supplier management. • Defence Communication Services Agency regional office, London and Northwood providing Communications and Information Systems support. External links • Royal Navy • Allied Maritime Component Command Headquarters Northwood Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwood_Headquarters" Categories: 1939 establishments, Military of the United Kingdom, Military facilities of the United Kingdom, Military facilities of NATO, Headquarters This page was last modified on 26 April 2009, at 09:09 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 2