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Nonviolent resistance to militarism
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Northwood Headquarters
A look at the centre of British military interventions
Andreas Speck
In this issue, we explore Northwood's role in a potential war on Iraq lead by the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ).
"As well as 24 surface ships and two nuclear-powered submarines, more than 2,000 British troops have already been deployed in Oman, a figure that will rise to 24,000 nearly a quarter of the British army by the end of the month. They will be supported by 400 armoured vehicles, squadrons of fighter-bombers, and a Commando brigade. Their role will be to intervene in a war that began in the early hours of July 9 when the first hostile tanks crossed the border, their tracks thundering across the sweltering desert plains of northern Oman." (1) What Jamie Wilson and Richard Norton-Taylor describe here in a Guardian article was Britain's biggest ever military exercise, called Saif Sareefa, and marked the full operationallity of the Permanent Joint Forces Headquarters in Northwood, and the Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF).
It might not be a coincidence that this huge war game and commando exercise took place in Oman, a desert region with a climate similar to Iraq.
Effective military interventions
Northwood the PJHQ is the result of efforts to improve effectiveness of military operations. The 1994 Defence Cost Study lead to the requirement to separate policy from operations, a consequence of which would be the creation of the Permanent Joint Headquarters. It recommended permitting "a proper, clear, and unambiguous connection between [government] policy and strategic functions and the conduct of operations at the operational level to be achieved". In July 1994, the creation of a single, permanent joint headquarters under a chief of joint operations (CJO) was announced. At the same time the formation of a rapid deployment force was announced. Both should become operational by April 1996 (2).
Phase 1 of these developments was completed in 1999. Culmination of phase 2 development of the full capability was supposed to be Exercise Saif Sareefa. If this exercise went ahead as planned after 11 September 2001 is not known to me.
| Joint
Force Headquarters Deployments |
|---|
|
| Operation |
Location |
Timeframe |
| Caxton | Montserrat | March
1996 |
| Purposeful | Central
Africa | November-December 1996 |
| Determinant | Congo/Zaire | March-June
1997 |
| Alleviate | Albania | June-July
1997 |
| Bolton | Kuwait | February-April
1998 |
| Carrick | Indonesia | May-June
1998 |
| Ladbrook | Congo | August-September
1998 |
| Desert Fox | Middle
East | December 1998 |
| Basilica | Sierra
Leone | January-February 1999 |
| Agricola | Kosovo | June
1999 |
| Langar | East
Timor | September-December 1999 |
| Barwood | Mozambique | February-March
2000 |
| Palliser | Sierra
Leone | May-June 2000 |
Source: Connaughton 2000, page 90
"Jointery" is the new buzzword, and the Permanent Joint Headquarters is one of the consequences. While joint operations are not entirely new the Falklands war was a joint operation but before 1996 the command structures for joint operations were always set up on an ad hoc basis, with those in command who seemed to be most approproate. The Falklands war was commanded from the Fleet Headquarters, then at Northwood, and the Gulf War 1991 was commanded by the Royal Air Force Strike Command Headquarters at High Wycombe. This was often inefficient and long-term joint planning didn't happen. In 1996 PJHQ put an end to this (3).
Joint Command & Control Structures
The PJHQ are commanded by the Chief of Joint Operations. The role of Northwood is "to be responsible for the planning and execution of U.K.-led joint, potentially joint, combined, and multinational operations, and for exercising operational command of U.K forces assigned to combined and multinational operations led by others, in order to achieve military strategic objectives." (2)
In order to be able to do so, Northwood permanently plans and evaluates. It classifies conflicts in four categories quiescent, stirring, quickening, and surfaced which then lead to three categories of interest. At the lowest level which probably includes the whole world "intelligence is maintaining a watching brief on areas of operational interest and creating a priority list". If it is evident that a crisis is emerging, then a multidisciplinary contingency planning team is organised, which is expected to master the situation in order to advice the entire chain of command. The third level of interest and we can be sure Iraq is on that level right now involves the formation of an operations team. Their role is to deal with the details of command, deployment and sustenance of forces, and ultimately the recovery of the assigned forces. In addition it has to be proactive and responsive towards the Ministry of Defence and supporting commands (2).
Outlook
If which we all hope won't happen in some months/weeks time the US and Britain will attack Iraq, then PJHQ at Northwood will be the centrepiece of the British part of this aggression. The plans are drawn up now at Northwood.
If we want to stop a war on Iraq and I hope we do then Northwood is one important "target" for our activities. Not only it is conveniently accessible via the Metropolitan line, but even more so because it plays the crucial role in any British military operation overseas. Northwood is the heart of the (military) beast meet you soon at Northwood?
Notes:
(1) British forces flex military muscle for 93m "desert war". The Guardian, 3/11/2001
(2) Richard M Connaughton: Organizing British Joint Rapid Reaction Forces. Joint Forces Quarterly, Autumn 2000, p87-94
(3) Jeremy R. Stocker: Jointness in Defence of the Realm. Joint Forces Quarterly, Spring 1997, p137-140
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