Canada announced a major integration of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in December 2025, creating a Joint Forces Command to increase cohesiveness and interoperability across air, land and sea. The new command will coordinate doctrine and force development and streamline resources in health care and other logistical needs shared by the Canadian Army, the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). “The establishment of the Canadian Joint Forces Command (CJFC) marks a significant step forward in modernizing our military. … This new command will allow the Canadian Armed Forces to be better integrated, agile, and ready to meet the complex challenges of today and tomorrow,” Minister of National Defence David J. McGuinty said in a news release.
The CJFC will strengthen accountability for joint military capabilities across the CAF and will be led by Lt. Gen. Darcy Molstad and Chief Warrant Officer Donovan Crawford. Integrating personnel and systems from across the CAF, the joint command reflects a shift toward integrated defense operations, a posture designed to improve force effectiveness in defense of North American and in fulfilling the country’s NATO missions, notably leading a multinational brigade in Latvia.
“The creation of the Canadian Joint Forces Command is a critical step in strengthening our delivery of integrated capabilities. A unified command better enables Canada’s defence posture to remain agile, efficient, and ready to meet current and future challenges,” said Stefanie Beck, deputy minister of national defence, in the December 4 release from the Department of National Defence.
The CJFC will let Canada engage with complex threats across multiple domains with a coordinated, efficient response. By centralizing leadership and accountability, the CAF will absorb oversight of several specialized organizations: the Chief of Combat Systems Integration, the Canadian Forces Military Police Group, the Canadian Joint Warfare Centre, the Director General Health Services and the Canadian Forces Health Services Group, the Chief of Joint Logistics, and the Joint Information and Intelligence Fusion Centre, according to the news release. “The Canadian Joint Forces Command will foster a culture of integration and agility, keeping our joint capabilities coherent, accountable, and ready to support Canada’s defence objectives,” Molstad said in the release.
Molstad told the Canadian Broadcast Corp. that the CJFC will direct drone and counter-drone warfare as part of the integrated portfolio of the new command. Canadian defense officials had discussed a command and control makeover for 15 years, and other allies, such as Australia, recently adopted similar reorganizations. But Molstad said the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine drove home the importance of having one command overseeing elements that cross domains. “We’re seeing that as a great example in Ukraine where their command and control systems, their use of dual-use technologies and communication systems, provide situational awareness,” Molstad said. “Their use, prolific use, of uncrewed systems and autonomy and counter-uncrewed systems is really game-changing.”