Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum

Joint Force Command Brunssum
HQ JFC Brunssum insignia
Active	AFCENT: 1953-2000 RHQ AFNORTH: 2000-2004 JFC-Brunssum: 2004-present
Allegiance	North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Part of	Allied Command Operations, Casteau, Belgium
Headquarters	Brunssum, Netherlands
Motto(s)	Many Nations: One Mission
Commanders
Commander	General Salvatore Farina, Italian Army
Deputy Commander	Lieutenant general Fernando Alejandre, Spanish Army
Chief of Staff	Lieutenant general Janusz Adamczak, Polish Army
Command Sergeant Major	Chief warrant officer Joe Ramsay, Canadian Army

The Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum is a NATO command at Brunssum, the Netherlands.

Originally the command was known as Headquarters, Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT) when it was activated in August 1953 in Fontainebleau, outside Paris, France.

After General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) in 1950, he found that devising command arrangements in the Central Region, which contained the bulk of NATO’s forces, was to be complicated. General Eisenhower considered naming an overall Commander-in-Chief (CINC) for the Central Region but soon realized it would be difficult to find an arrangement that would satisfy all three major powers with forces in the Centre - the United States, United Kingdom and France - because their views on the proper relationship of air and ground power differed significantly.

Drawing upon his Second World War experience, Eisenhower decided to retain overall control himself and did not appoint a CINC for the Central Region. Instead there would be three separate commanders-in-chief (for Allied Air Forces Central Europe, Allied Land Forces Central Europe and Flag Officer Central Europe (FLAGCENT), all reporting directly to SACEUR. Vice Admiral Robert Jaujard of the French Navy was appointed as Flag Officer Central Europe, and served from 2 April 51 until 20 August 1953. On 20 August 1953 General Ridgeway, Eisenhower's successor, established a single Commander-in-Chief (CINCENT) for the region with subordinate land, air and naval commanders (COMLANDCENT, COMAIRCENT, and COMNAVCENT respectively).

One of the command's exercises in the 1950s was Operation Counter Punch. Counter Punch was a September 1957 AFCENT air-ground military exercise that also tested NATO's integrated air-defense system in its central European front. The exercise involved the national air-defense systems of Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, with Général d'Armée Jean-Étienne Valluy, French Army, NATO's Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Central Europe (CINCENT), in overall command. Operation Counter Punch revealed deficiencies in the Integrated NATO Air Defense System as well as air force responsiveness to theoretical Soviet and Warsaw Pact ground advances.