Operations and Exercises

United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) directs and enables military operations and activities with allies and partners to increase regional security and stability in support of enduring U.S. interests.  USCENTCOM executes a military campaign plan across the Central Region area of responsibility (AOR) through the application of operations, activities, and investments (OAIs) in support of steady state, crisis, and contingency operations.  USCENTCOM activities include bilateral and multilateral exercises, combined interoperability training, professional education, senior military interaction, security cooperation, humanitarian assistance, and other traditional military activities.  USCENTCOM activities mandate building strong relationships with regional leaders and maintaining access to shared facilities within the AOR.

USCENTCOM conducts joint and combined exercises with regional partners throughout the AOR from company through combined joint task force levels to sustain warfighting capability and interoperability across multiple common functional platforms.  Military-to-military activities support a broad U.S. peacetime engagement strategy which also allows the sharing of best practices and demonstrate U.S. commitment and resolve to the region.

USCENTCOM conducts military information support operations (MISO) in the AOR to inform regional audiences and counter competitor, adversary, and enemy influence.  MISO supports command and U.S. Government (USG) efforts to ensure a more stable and prosperous region with increasingly effective governance, improved security, and transregional cooperation to counter state and non-state actors posing a threat to U.S. interests.  MISO is also conducted to deter state-sponsored conventional attacks, mitigate malign influence, counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, disrupt regional and transregional terrorist organizations, and show U.S. resolve against adversaries within the region including ISIS, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and the Iranian threat network (ITN) and its proxies and surrogates.  These MISO activities support USCENTCOM’s assigned military mission articulated in the campaign plan, are coordinated with USG interagency, and implemented in accordance with U.S. public law and Department of Defense (DoD) policy guidance.

Information-related capabilities such as MISO are high-impact and low-costs investment to deter aggression, counter destabilizing behavior, and decrease the potential for escalation.  By helping synchronize actions with information, USCENTCOM MISO is a key enabler, employed through visual, print media, radio, text messages, social media, messaging applications, and the Internet.

MISO degrades adversary capability and intent to harm U.S. service members and U.S. interests in the region by influencing adversarial decision-making and behavior, countering disinformation, amplifying U.S. resolve, and deterring acts of aggression promulgated by state actors, namely:  Iran, Russia, China, Syria, and their regional surrogates.  MISO OAIs are conducted across the USCENTCOM AOR including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen in coordination with the Department of State and other USG interagency partners.  These USCENTCOM MISO efforts are expected to be expanded in 2022.

The USCENTCOM DoD Rewards Program pays monetary rewards or rewards-in-kind to eligible persons who provide information or nonlethal assistance to U.S. or allied forces that enables or enhances force protection of, or combatting terrorism by, those forces in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility and the region’s international waters, with programs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

U.S. citizens; U.S. Federal, State, or local government officers or employees; and U.S. Government contractor employees are not eligible for rewards under this program. Foreign security force members are eligible only with a waiver.

Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR)

To learn more about Operation Inherent Resolve, Click on the following links:

Inherent Resolve website

Department of Defense Special Report on Operation Inherent Resolve

Department of State: the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS


Inherent Resolve against terrorist threats

The name Inherent Resolve is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIS and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, the region and the wider international community. It also symbolizes the willingness and dedication of coalition members to work closely with our friends in the region and apply all available dimensions of national power necessary - diplomatic, informational, military, and economic - to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS.

The ISIS Threat: A Global Challenge

ISIS has dramatically undermined stability in Iraq, Syria, the broader Middle East and poses a threat to international peace and security. ISIS continues to commit gross, systematic abuses of human rights and violations of international law, including indiscriminate killing and deliberate targeting of civilians, mass executions and extrajudicial killings, persecution of individuals and entire communities on the basis of their identity, kidnapping of civilians, forced displacement of Shia communities and minority groups, killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence, along with numerous other atrocities. ISIS presents a global terrorist threat which has recruited thousands of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria from across the globe and leveraged technology to spread its violent extremist ideology and to incite terrorist acts. As noted in UN Security Council Resolution 2170, “terrorism can only be defeated by a sustained and comprehensive approach involving the active participation and collaboration of all States… which is why our first priority is to encourage others to join in this important endeavor.”

The meaning of the CJTF-OIR logo

The swords and olive branch indicate the dual nature of the Coalition – the defeat of ISIS and the restoration of stability to the region. The seven leaves of the olive branch represent the seven peoples of Iraq: Sunni, Shia, Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, Yazidi, and Armenian. The colors used are a reflection of military assets – brown and green for land components; blue for air and naval. The three stars indicate the command, while the color gold represents the quality of excellence performed by the command in the nation’s defense.

One Mission, Many Nations

Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve continues to work by, with and through regional partners to militarily defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, in order to enable whole-of-coalition governmental actions to increase regional stability.

Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan (2015-2021)

The NATO-led mission Resolute Support Mission (RSM) in Afghanistan was launched on 1 January 2015, following the completion of the mission of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Its aim was to provide further training, advice and assistance for the Afghan security forces and institutions. In April 2021, the Allies decided to start the withdrawal of RSM forces by 1 May 2021 and the mission was terminated early September 2021.