AFDD 2-1.9, page 8

vi COMAFFOR / JFACC / CFACC A note on terminology One of the cornerstones of Air Force doctrine is “the US Air Force prefers—and in fact, plans and trains—to employ through a commander, Air Force forces (COMAFFOR) who is also dual-hatted as a joint force air and space component commander (JFACC).” (AFDD 1) To simplify the use of nomenclature, Air Force doctrine documents will assume the COMAFFOR is dual-hatted as the JFACC unless specifically stated otherwise. The term "COMAFFOR" refers to the Air Force Service component commander while the term "JFACC" refers to the joint operational commander. While both joint and Air Force doctrine state that one individual will normally be dual- hatted as COMAFFOR and JFACC, the two responsibilities are different, and should be executed through different staffs. Normally, the COMAFFOR function executes operational control/administrative control of Air Force forces through a Service A-Staff while the JFACC function executes tactical control of all joint air and space component forces through an air and space operations center. When multinational operations are involved the JFACC becomes a combined forces air and space component commander (CFACC). Likewise, the air and space operations center (AOC), though commonly referred to simply as an AOC, in joint or combined operations is correctly known as a joint air and space operations center (JAOC) or combined air and space operations center (CAOC). Since nearly every operation the US conducts will involve international partners, this publication uses the terms CFACC and CAOC throughout to emphasize the doctrine’s applicability to multinational operations.