During wartime it would serve as the operational command headquarters for all of the South Korean and U.S. ground, air, sea (including Marine) and special operations forces fighting on the Korean peninsula.

This pattern exists throughout the CFC command structure: if the chief of a staff section is Korean, the deputy is American and vice versa.

CFC's mission is to "Deter hostile acts of external aggression against the Republic of Korea by a combined military effort of the United States of America and the ROK; and in the event deterrence fails, defeat an external armed attack against the ROK."

To accomplish this mission the CFC has operational control over more than 600,000 active-duty military personnel of all services, of both countries.

Despite the impression of total American control of the Republic of Korea's armed forces via the CFC, during peacetime the Korean units are wholly independent.