United States Rapid Deployment Forces

Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force
Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force USAF Emblem
Active	1 March 1980 – 1 January 1983
Country	United States
Type	Joint Task Force
Garrison/HQ	MacDill AFB, Florida

The Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force (RDJTF) is an inactive United States Department of Defense Joint Task Force. It was first envisioned as a three-division force in 1979 as the Rapid Deployment Force, or RDF, a highly mobile force that could be rapidly moved to locations outside the normal overseas deployments in Europe and Korea. Its charter was expanded and greatly strengthened in 1980 as the RDJTF. It was inactivated in 1983, and re-organized as the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM).

After the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War, American attention gradually focused on the Persian Gulf. The Yom Kippur War of 1973, the US/Soviet confrontation and the subsequent 1973/1974 oil crisis led to President Richard Nixon issuing an American warning, "...that American military intervention to protect vital oil supplies" was a possibility, served to increase attention on the area as being vital to US national interests.

With the new administration elected in 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed Presidential Review Memorandum (PRM) 10, which undertook an evaluation of US strategy. The President signed Presidential Directive (PD) 18 on August 24, 1977, a part of which called for the establishment of a mobile force capable of responding to worldwide contingencies that would not divert forces from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or Korea. In 1978, three Army divisions (the 9th, 82nd, and 101st) and one Marine division were earmarked for such duties. There were however no substantial funds allocated and it remained a paper exercise.