NATO has agreed a major redistribution of leadership responsibilities across its command structure, with European allies set to take control of all three of the Alliance’s Joint Force Commands while the United States retains leadership of NATO’s key theatre component commands.
The changes, agreed by allies on 6 February and announced on 10 February, form part of what NATO described as a shift towards more evenly shared responsibility within the Alliance, while also underlining continued US commitment to NATO command and control.
Under the new arrangement, the United Kingdom will take over command of Joint Force Command Norfolk, while Italy will assume command of Joint Force Command Naples. Both commands are currently led by the United States. Germany and Poland will also share leadership of Joint Force Command Brunssum on a rotational basis.
NATO said the shift means all three Joint Force Commands, the Alliance’s four-star operational headquarters responsible for leading NATO forces in crisis and conflict, will be commanded by European allies. At the same time, the United States will lead all three of NATO’s theatre component commands. This includes taking over responsibility for Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM), while maintaining leadership of Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) and Allied Air Command (AIRCOM).
In a statement, NATO said the changes would be introduced gradually over the coming years, aligned with existing scheduled personnel rotations. The Alliance described the agreement as part of a broader effort to rebalance leadership roles as European allies take on greater responsibility within NATO’s command structure. NATO also emphasised that the United States would continue to play a central role, including retaining the post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), traditionally held by a senior US officer.
A NATO spokesperson said the agreement reflected “a shift to more fairly shared responsibility within NATO”, adding that European allies would take on greater leadership roles while the new structure also demonstrated “the US commitment to NATO command and control”.
Reportedly, French diplomatic sources have suggested that reason for the loss of British involvement in Allied Maritime Command is the lack of British naval capability going forward.
That doesn’t really make sense in the context of what MARCOM actually does. It’s already been reorganised twice in the last 25 years, and I’m not sure what the constant chair-rearrangements accomplish.
You’re right, there have been a couple of big changes. The 2003 change was really about moving NATO away from Cold War Atlantic defence towards a more flexible operational model. The second reform came after the 2007–2008 financial crisis, when NATO needed to streamline its HQs and save some money. As part of that, multiple maritime HQs got folded into a single Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) at Northwood in 2012.
I’m sure the French are happy we’ve lost MARCOM (they’d just fully rejoined NATO’s integrated command in 2009, so couldn’t really say much at the time). Bit of a shame, mainly for the influence but of course also for the prestige.
The UK retains the largest fleet in Western Europe by some margin, this has nothing to do with France or the UK maritime commitment. MARCOM is going to the USA and not France and instead the UK is getting the JFC. The JFC is significantly more important than MARCOM. This role is about replacing the USA at operational level for critical European NATO commands and instead giving the US less critical multi theatre command like MARCOM.
Politics being what it is they can’t remove the USA from the command structure just shuffle it around.
In a nutshell, uk lost a strategic command for an operational one. Well done.
“largest…by some margin” – It depends on what you are looking at, the UK has much higher overall tonnage because the RN prioritises large ships, the MN favours smaller units because of their need to cover a much larger maritime zone with bits of land all around the world. However, the two navies are largely comparable in strength and capabilities.
Then North Korea has the largest navy in the world 😂
That’s BS, where do you get this s**t from.
Can you sight a source?
Clearly not true. We still have the best 2 naval carriers by some distance in Europe (the french carrier is individually better but has less capable jets) and best submarine force. Our destroyers are far more capable. It’s just our frigate and solid support fleet that is lacking. Our navy still brings a lot to European defence.
First British command in Virginia since 1776?
So now getting prompted to view adverts to access this site. A bad idea. Other defence information websites are available. UKDJ is preferred because its British. But spam adverts are a retrograde step
it’s taken trump to make europe understand it’s responsibility for it’s own defence, up to now it’s been treating the USA like it’s parent
Whilst true, it’s not like it was a one way relationship. The US has the strongest economy in the world thanks to preferential treatment of it’s companies in Europe. Europe and especially the UK (pretty much all our own owned industry has been taken over by US interests) has more than paid for the defensive force the US brought to the equation.
uks own fault for not protecting strategic industry like every other nation does
Polictically it was needed. The older voters still pander back to the empire days (even though they were not very nice for average person in the UK) and policiticans were desperate to talk about the UK being an international player and punching above its weight /.special relationship
And the rest of Europe ?
Rest of Europe doesn’t really have the glory days mentality that the UK has.
What preferential treatment? This is mentioned with no evidence.
Europe has a productivity problem. It is going to get left behind if red tape isn’t cut at record rates.
Just look at the companies operating in Europe by turnover and then compare their share ownership. Also check domestic companies Vs us owned companies and what level of tax they pay. The evidence is all there. Even in France which we normally think is highly protectorate, large numbers of their big companies are US controlled.
I don’t know where else to comment, but I will no longer be visiting this site due to the ludicrous advertising now in place.
Being forced to watch videos advertising McLaren sports cars (who know what rose in the future) and then faced with three quarter page ads on the site itself i for cruise missiles and harbour cranes!!! Is way too much and far far too pointless.
To he fair the over political nature of the comments section combined with the same old whining about how many frigates/destroyers/tanks/GBAD/space dreadnaughts we should build (largely ignoring the content of articles) has also become so repetitive and boring that there is virtually no useful information to be gleaned.
Good luck
And to you. 👋
In December I had a couple of recurring ads on this website. One was for a high powered mobile laser weapon by a company called Rafale and the other was for an Anthea Turner calendar. I thought to myself, well, that’s Halfwit’s Christmas sorted, at least. 😀
I tend to get Ukranian women and other women in lingerie….I’m not complaining!
So we have lost MARCOM.
No doubt the French are celebrating. But we brought it on ourselves. The Government dont give a stuff about the RN and the Admiralty care more about their pensions.
No you’re wrong and the French are not celebrating anything, MARCOM is going to the USA and we are getting JFC.
So americans get the strategic commands and euros got the operational ones. Worst situation for Europe.
We haven’t lost anything. A British.Admiral.will take over Joint Force Command in Norfolk Va from a USN Vice Admiral.
A USN Vice Admiral will take over the single service Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) from an RN Vice Admiral at Northwood.
Basically musical chairs.
Ref the usual pocket of anti-French sentiment,, we should remember that a French Admiral heads one of the two major NATO commands, Allied Command Transformation, based at Norfolk Va.
I see the UK still has Deputy SACEUR post, RAF ACM Sir John Stringer, taking over from RN Admiral Sir Keith Blount. I thought we were losing that to a German 3 star, but he is NATO chief of staff.
It’s not musical chairs, one is stratégie, the other is operational. In a nutshell, us make sure they are in charge and leaves day to day stuff to its junior partners.
Not sure that’s quite right.l Julestrooz. Europeans will run the three main regional commands – North Atlantic (Norfolk), North Europe (Brunssum). South Eutope (Naples). That’s operations.
The US will commend the three single-service commands, air, land and sea. I think that’s tactics, training and equipment.
Seems sensible enough on paper, what flaw do you.forsee in that arrangement?
I see a manner for americans to be less involved in operational matters (so they stay true to their electorate), diluting European influence in a specific geographic area vs a global one. It provides the illusion of empowerement to euros while in reality keepin (gaining here) key seats.
Isn’t MARCOM at Northwood effectively the successor to COMEASTLANT? Which was always a British command, rightly, given the geography and ASW assets the RN could deploy.
Shame…
Still, on the positive side, instead of just commanding East Atlantic,.a British admiral will now command rhe whole Atlantic! And, rather critically, the High North, including Greenland. So a right hot potato politically…
Now all we need are some non-rusting ships and working submarines, so we can be seen to actually be playing our part.