Northwood Headquarters is a military headquarters facility of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

in Eastbury, Hertfordshire, England, adjacent to the London suburb of Northwood. It is home to the following military command and control functions: #Headquarters, Strategic Command, formerly Joint Forces Command #

Permanent Joint Headquarters The Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) is the British tri-service headquarters from where all overseas military operations are planned and controlled. It is situated at Northwood Headquarters in Northwood, London. The Permanent Joint Headqua ...

# Commander Operations for the Royal Navy #

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

Allied Maritime Command

History

The headquarters is on the grounds of Eastbury Park. In 1938 the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

took over the site for the use of RAF Coastal Command which made use of the Eastbury house and also created a network of underground bunkers and operations blocks. The house was used as an Officers' Mess though it was subsequently damaged by fire. In 1953 the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, gained an additional NATO responsibility as Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Atlantic, as part of SACLANT, and the Eastern Atlantic NATO military command structure was established at the Northwood Headquarters. The Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet still flew his flag however in at Portsmouth. In 1960 the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet moved to Northwood, in 1963 the Naval unit at Northwood was commissioned as HMS ''Warrior'' and in 1966 the NATO Channel Command (a post also held by the Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) moved to Northwood from Portsmouth. In September 1971, when the post of Commander-in-Chief Fleet was established, the Royal Navy took over responsibility for the whole site and in 1978 the Flag Officer Submarines also moved his Headquarters to Northwood. As Headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief Fleet, the site was the controlling Headquarters for Operation Corporate, the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

, in 1982. The

was established on site in April 1996. In 2002, following a rationalisation, the Commander-in-Chief Fleet moved the majority of his staff to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and handed over the Northwood site to the Chief of Joint Operations. In 2006 major construction works commenced to improve the functionality of the site: the works, which involved the refurbishment or replacement of many of the key buildings, were carried under a Private Finance Initiative contract by Carillion. Queen Elizabeth II visited the site on 6 May 2010 to open the main

building, part of a £150 million redevelopment of the site. Joint Forces Command was established on site in April 2012. On 9 December 2019, it was announced that Joint Forces Command had been renamed as Strategic Command. The Operational Headquarters for the EU Naval Force moved from Northwood to Rota, Spain and to Brest, France on 29 March 2019.

Occupants

Strategic Command

Strategic Command (UKStratCom) is a tri-service organisation managing allocated joint capabilities from the three armed services.

Permanent Joint Headquarters

Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) is a tri-service organisation holding Operational Control of

British armed forces The British Armed Forces are the unified military, military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its British Overseas Territories, Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests ...

joint military operation. PJHQ is headed by the Chief of Joint Operations. Single-service operations remain under the operational control of the appropriate front-line command.

Royal Navy

The Commander Operations commands the operations staff on the Northwood site. Among Commander Operations' responsibilities are command of Commander Task Force (CTF) 311 (UK attack submarines) and CTF 345 (UK nuclear missile submarines). Reservists from , part of the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

, who had moved from the Northwood Headquarters site to Brackenhill House on Oxhey Drive South in 1988, moved back into a new building on the Northwood Headquarters site in June 2011.

NATO Allied Maritime Command

The NATO Allied Maritime Command is based at Northwood, and comes under the Command and Control of the Allied Command Operations.

Support units

The Headquarters Staffs are supported by: *Joint Support Unit Northwood, providing administrative support, life support, facilities and supplier management. * Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) providing Communications and Information Systems support. *A detachment of Military Provost Guard Service personnel providing force protection.

References

External links

* {{Official website 1938 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Three Rivers District Military command and control installations Military headquarters in the United Kingdom Military installations in England NATO installations in the United Kingdom United Kingdom nuclear command and control Military history of Hertfordshire