CENTCOM exercises new forward headquarters in Qatar | Print |
By U.S. Central Command
MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (Oct. 14, 2009) — As part of a long-planned training evolution, United States Central Command is deploying about 750 people from its Tampa headquarters to its new forward headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base, Doha, Qatar.

This deployment is not in response to any recent or ongoing operations. The primary purpose of the deployment is to exercise the CENTCOM staff's ability to seamlessly transition command and control of operations from its headquarters in Tampa to the new headquarters in Qatar in the event of a crisis in the CENTCOM area of responsibility or a natural disaster in Florida.

The last time CENTCOM deployed to its forward headquarters was August 2008, when the staff similarly exercised its continuity of operations plan.