United States Central Command

The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM or CENTCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense. It was established in 1983, taking over the previous responsibilities of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF). Its area of responsibility (AOR) includes the Middle East (including Egypt in Africa), Central Asia and parts of South Asia. The command has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Persian Gulf War's Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the war in Afghanistan, as well as the Iraq War from 2003 to 2011. As of 2015, CENTCOM forces were deployed primarily in Afghanistan under the auspices of Operation Freedom's Sentinel, which was itself part of NATO's Resolute Support Mission (from 2015 to 2021), and in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve since 2014 in supporting and advise-and-assist roles. As of 8 August 2025, CENTCOM's commander is Admiral Brad Cooper, U.S. Navy. Two of the last three United States secretaries of defense—Lloyd Austin and James Mattis, both of whom required congressional waivers to be confirmed—were recent CENTCOM commanders. Of all seven American regional unified combatant commands, CENTCOM is among four that are headquartered outside their area of operations (the other three being USAFRICOM, USSOUTHCOM, and USSPACECOM). CENTCOM's main headquarters is located at MacDill Air Force Base, in Tampa, Florida. A forward headquarters was established in 2002 at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar, which in 2009 transitioned to a forward headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. In January 2021, Israel became the 21st country of the CENTCOM AOR, added to another 20 nations including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.