FLEET COMMAND AND ORGANISATION

Fleet Headquarters

The Commander in Chief, Fleet (CINCFLEET) is Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent KCB CBE (appointed November 2005). Admiral Burnell-Nugent has full command of all deployable UK Fleet units, including the Royal Marines. As the sole UK based four star NATO Commander (JFCC Maritime – Northwood), he is the maritime advisor to the NATO Joint Force Commander (Brunssum) and has to be prepared in all respects to participate in joint and combined operations. He is also responsible for key maritime elements of the Standing NATO Response Force

Fleet HQ Portsmouth at Portsmouth has three major roles:

• The generation of maritime forces to match the operational requirement. Forces generated have to be manned, equipped and trained to the appropriate readiness states.

• Management of the resources provided to the Fleet and the monitoring of resources and assets thus employed to ensure operational effectiveness and value for money.

• The Commander-in-Chief Fleet manages maritime operations by delegating operational command and control to the Commander Operations (located at Northwood). Commander Operations has the majority of Fleet units under his command.

Note: COS – Chief of Staff; FOST – Flag Officer Sea Training; Comd - Commander

Deputy Commander in Chief Fleet

Is the deputy for the Commander and is a member of the Sub Navy Board Committee. The Deputy Commander directs the staff work of Fleet Headquarters.

Commander (Operations)

Is the officer who directs all maritime and amphibious forces and associated operations under the command of the CINCFLEET. In addition he is the commander of the submarine arm and is the NATO Commander Submarines East Atlantic and Commander Submarines Allied Naval Forces North.

Chief of Staff (Warfare)

This officer and his staff are responsible for delivering the operational capability to match the perceived short and longer term requirement.

Chief of Staff (Support)

Is responsible for sustaining the Fleet and ensuring that the required vessels and units are available for operations. His responsibilities include personnel administration, the Maritime Warfare Centre, communications systems, engineering and some aspects of the Fleet Air Arm support.

The Command Secretary

Is the senior civilian in Fleet Headquarters responsible for civilian personnel, external accountability, resource management and some aspects of planning.

Flag Officer Sea Training

Is the officer responsible for training on all Royal Naval and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels.

Commander UK Maritime Forces

Commander of the United Kingdom Task Group and Commander of the Amphibious Task Group.

Commander UK Amphibious Forces

Is the Head of Service for the Royal Marines, Commandant General Royal Marines and commander of 3 Commando Brigade.

Fleet HQ maintains Waterfront organisations at Devonport, Faslane and is responsible for Naval Air Stations at Culdrose, Prestwick and Yeovilton.



Naval Home Command

The Commander in Chief Naval Home Command and Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Adrian Johns CBE (appointed November 2005) is the Royal Navy’s Principal Personnel Officer. He has the responsibility for maintaining operational capability by providing the correctly trained manpower to the Fleet.

Vice Admiral Johns is responsible for all naval manpower matters. With a nation having no serious current unemployment problems, the Royal Navy is competing for high grade people against attractive other careers. The key word is 'quality' as highly intelligent officers and ratings are essential to man the ships – and the same applies to the Royal Marines and the Royal Fleet Auxilliary.

'Stretch' (long periods away from UK) is a matter of some importance as, though sailors and marines will respond to good leadership, they can be pushed (stretched) too far regarding separation from families – good pay or even Financial Retention Incentives (FRIs) are not enough. The Fleet has been stretched for many years and has continued to perform satisfactorily but personnel numbers have been falling with the Royal Navy having even more operational tasks to complete Naval Home Command has the responsibility for ensuring that outflow figures do not exceed the inflow totals.



Defence Logistics Organisation

Separate logistic support for the three Services ended in 2000 with the establishment of the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO). The DLO’s mission is to provide joint logistic support to the UK Armed Services and employs about 20,000 personnel, of whom about 5,000 are uniformed (approximately 1,000 Royal Navy).

The DLO is led by a four star officer Chief of Defence Logistics, General Sir Kevin O'Donoghue. (appointed January 2005) and the organisation has an annual spend ot £8 billion (20 per cent of the defence budget). Royal Naval logistics are the responsibility of the Director General Logistics Fleet, a two star naval officer.

Royal Naval logistic support is provided by the DLO’s one star cluster groups as follows:

DG Logistics (Fleet)

• Maritime Platform

• Waterfront Operations

• Maritime Equipment

DG (Nuclear)

• Nuclear related items

DG Logistics (Land)

• Manoeuvre/Strike

• Rotary Wing

• Combat Service Support

DG Logistics (Strike)

• RAF Groups

DG Logistics (Supply Chain)

• Commodities

• Munitions Group

Logistics support for maritime or amphibious operations may come from one or more of the above cluster groups.