The Joint Staff is organized as numbered directorates, each headed by its own director. The director of the Joint Staff supervises the entire organization, and reports to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Joint Staff Officer Handbook: Staffing and Action Guide (August 2012), pp. 111-116.

History

The Joint Staff was established in 1947 to provide the Joint Chiefs of Staff with a small staff drawn equally from each of the armed services and supervised by the director of the Joint Staff. Initially the Joint Staff was organized as interservice committees held over from World War II, but in 1958 it was expanded and reorganized to form the numbered directorates of a conventional military staff: J-1 (personnel), J-2 (intelligence), J-3 (operations), J-4 (logistics), J-5 (plans and policy), J-6 (communications and electronics). Two more directorates were added in 1987: J-7 (operational plans and interoperability) and J-8 (force structure, resource, and assessment).Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 17-19, 39-44, 62-63.

The J-1 directorate was abolished in 1976 but reestablished in 1982.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 49, 58. The J-2 directorate was abolished in 1963 and its functions were turned over to the Defense Intelligence Agency. It was reconstituted as a full Joint Staff directorate in 1991 and upgraded to three stars in 2021.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 46, 67, 96. The J-3, J-4, and J-5 directorates were upgraded to three stars in 1964.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), p. 45.

The J-6 directorate was abolished in 1976 but reestablished in 1979 as the C3S (command, control, and communications systems) directorate, a three-star billet that was redesignated J-6 in 1987. The directorate was abolished again in 2011 and supervised by the J-8 director during the wind-down, but was revived a few months later.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 49, 51, 63, 82-83, 89. The J-7 directorate was downgraded to one star in 2002 after much of its work was absorbed by Joint Forces Command (JFCOM). When JFCOM was disestablished in 2011, most of its functions returned to the J-7 directorate, which was upgraded to three stars.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 75, 82-83. The J-8 directorate was upgraded to three stars in 1996.Organizational Development of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1942-2002 (October 2022), pp. 70.

List of Joint Staff directors