Joint Forces offers new Web-based course

U.S. Joint Forces Command

The Defense Department launched a new online course today that will give personnel assigned to joint task forces a better understanding of how joint operations and organizations work.

The course, Joint Task Force Fundamentals, is being offered through Joint Forces Command's Joint Warfighting Center.

"The [Joint Warfighting Center] is the only organization within the Defense Department that trains joint headquarters to function at the operational level of war," said Air Force Col. Frederick Guendel, chief of the joint individual training and education branch, in a statement. "Traditionally, the vehicle used to conduct that training has been exercises where we identify a headquarters to train, and then conduct that training through a...collective process."

Guendel called the Joint Task Fundamentals course a "valuable complement to the collective training program" and said it will prove its value when short-notice contingencies arise that require a joint response.

The course will consist of a series of modules in a variety of joint operational problems, including:

* Forming a joint task force headquarters.

* Joint task force organization and command relationships.

* Information management.

* Joint operational and deployment planning.

* Joint task force transition and redeployment operations.

* Joint logistics.

* Multinational operations.

Because the course is Web-based, its curriculum can always be kept up-to-date and offered to any service member around the world.