Readiness Action Plan

At the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO agreed to a Readiness Action Plan (RAP) to ensure the Alliance is ready to respond swiftly and firmly to new security challenges. This is the most significant reinforcement of NATO's collective defence since the end of the Cold War. The RAP addresses risks and threats from the east and the south.

Highlights

The RAP consists of a package of measures that include the initiatives listed hereunder.

• Assurance measures: they comprise a series of land, sea and air activities in, on and around the territory of NATO Allies in Central and Eastern Europe. These measures are reinforced by exercises focused on collective defence and crisis management.

• Adaptation measures: these introduce more long-term changes to NATO forces and command structure and include the following:

• An enhanced NATO Response Force (NRF) - a multinational force with land, air, maritime and Special Operations Forces units capable of rapid deployment wherever needed;

• A new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) within the NRF of around 5,000 troops with some elements able to deploy within 48 hours;

• Enhanced Standing Naval Forces with more and different types of ships.

• Six multinational NATO command and control centres to facilitate the rapid deployment of the VJTF and Allied follow-on forces units;

• The development of the headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast in Szczecin, Poland.

• The establishment of a standing joint logistics support group headquarters, to help manage the rapid movement of forces.

To learn more about the Readiness Action Plan, download the latest fact sheet here: Readiness Action Plan Fact Sheet - July 2016