Northwood

Northwood is a town in the London Borough of Hillingdon, Hertfordshire, hosting the UK Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ) at Northwood Headquarters. For the week of 20 April 2026, Northwood PJHQ was scheduled to host a British and French military planning summit to draft Hormuz rules of engagement — converting the Paris 17 April posture into a working command structure without US participation. The summit was described as a follow-on to the Paris conference that produced no signed framework and no rules of engagement. related event

PJHQ was established on 1 April 1996 (fully operational 1 August 1996) and is led by the Chief of Joint Operations, a three-star rank currently held by Lieutenant General Nick Perry. With approximately 567 military and civil service personnel, PJHQ exercises operational command of all UK overseas joint and combined operations. It has commanded Operation Veritas (Afghanistan, 2001), Operation Telic (Iraq invasion, 2003), Operation Herrick (Helmand Province from 2006), and Operation Pitting (Afghan evacuation, 2021). It coordinates with UK intelligence agencies on cyber operations but is explicitly not responsible for NATO Article V general war scenarios, which fall under NATO Military Command Structure authority.

The selection of Northwood as the venue for the Hormuz rules-of-engagement summit carries deliberate institutional weight: PJHQ is the UK's command hub for out-of-area operations, and its involvement signals British intent to treat Hormuz as an active operational commitment rather than a diplomatic aspiration. The absence of US planners from the summit — described as explicit in the Paris conference outcome — is the most significant departure from post-Cold War Coalition planning norms since the 2003 Iraq War divided the transatlantic alliance.