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Combatant commander (CCDR) is the post of a major military leader of United States armed forces, of a Unified Combatant Command.
The Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 added a new level of CCDR to the U.S. military's chain of command. Regional combatant commanders were created in order to have a local supreme commander who could exercise unified command and control across service boundaries, ideally eliminating or diminishing interservice rivalries. CCDRs reported directly to the United States Secretary of Defense, and through him to the President of the United States. The best-known combatant commander was probably Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) during Operation Desert Storm.
The term "Commander in Chief" has a long history of use in English-speaking armed forces, designating an overall multi-service commander in a theater of operations; and the commanders of the unified and specified commands had been called Commanders-in-Chief ("CINCs") for decades until October 24, 2002, when Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld suddenly announced that the title of "Commander-in-Chief" would thereafter be reserved for the President, since Article II of the United States Constitution provides that the President is commander in chief of the army and navy. Armed forces CINCs in specified regions would thereafter be known as "combatant commanders," heading what are now known as Unified Combatant Commands.
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