diff --git a/Gruntfile.js b/Gruntfile.js
index c592bb0..3725ac6 100644
--- a/Gruntfile.js
+++ b/Gruntfile.js
@@ -478,6 +478,19 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
 					BUILD_DIR + 'wp-includes/js/wp-emoji.min.js'
 				],
 				dest: BUILD_DIR + 'wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js'
+			},
+			jquery: {
+				options: {
+					separator: '\n',
+					process: function( src, filepath ) {
+						return '// Source: ' + filepath.replace( BUILD_DIR, '' ) + '\n' + src;
+					}
+				},
+				src: [
+					BUILD_DIR + 'wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js',
+					BUILD_DIR + 'wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate.min.js'
+				],
+				dest: BUILD_DIR + 'wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-release.min.js'
 			}
 		},
 		compress: {
@@ -635,7 +648,8 @@ module.exports = function(grunt) {
 		'clean:tinymce',
 		'concat:emoji',
 		'includes:emoji',
-		'jsvalidate:build'
+		'jsvalidate:build',
+		'concat:jquery'
 	] );
 
 	// Testing tasks.
diff --git a/src/wp-includes/script-loader.php b/src/wp-includes/script-loader.php
index bd53a7b..ba76522 100644
--- a/src/wp-includes/script-loader.php
+++ b/src/wp-includes/script-loader.php
@@ -184,9 +184,23 @@ function wp_default_scripts( &$scripts ) {
 	$scripts->add( 'cropper', '/wp-includes/js/crop/cropper.js', array('scriptaculous-dragdrop') );
 
 	// jQuery
-	$scripts->add( 'jquery', false, array( 'jquery-core', 'jquery-migrate' ), '1.11.2' );
-	$scripts->add( 'jquery-core', '/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js', array(), '1.11.2' );
-	$scripts->add( 'jquery-migrate', "/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate$suffix.js", array(), '1.2.1' );
+	// When SCRIPT_DEBUG is true, jQuery and jQuery-migrate are loaded as seperate files
+	// When SCRIPT_DEBUG is false, a combined version of the two files are loaded to reduce HTTP requests
+	// For the purposes of cache busting, the release (combined) version number is a cancatination of the
+	// version numbers of the original files
+	$jquery_version         = '1.11.2';
+	$jquery_migrate_version = '1.2.1';
+	$jquery_release_version = 'core' . $jquery_version . '-migrate' . $jquery_migrate_version;
+	if ( true == SCRIPT_DEBUG ) {
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery', false, array( 'jquery-core', 'jquery-migrate' ), $jquery_version );
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery-core', '/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery.js', array(), $jquery_version );
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery-migrate', "/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-migrate$suffix.js", array(), $jquery_migrate_version );
+	}
+	else {
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery', '/wp-includes/js/jquery/jquery-release.min.js', array(), $jquery_release_version );
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery-core', false, array( 'jquery' ), $jquery_version, 1 );
+		$scripts->add( 'jquery-migrate', false, array( 'jquery' ), $jquery_migrate_version, 1 );
+	}
 
 	// full jQuery UI
 	$scripts->add( 'jquery-ui-core', "/wp-includes/js/jquery/ui/core$dev_suffix.js", array('jquery'), '1.11.4', 1 );