MONS, Belgium - A ceremony was held on July 1, 2024, in Solbiate Olona, Italy to officially stand-up NATO’s new Allied Reaction Force (ARF), marking a significant milestone in enhancing NATO’s collective defence.
The ARF replaces the NATO Response Force (NRF). This development is crucial for the deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic area, ensuring NATO is prepared to respond swiftly and effectively to any threat in an evolving security environment.
The ARF offers the Alliance a strategic, high-readiness, force-generated, multi-domain and multinational capability that can be deployed and employed immediately on the orders of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) to strengthen deterrence in peacetime and crisis, and support the Alliance’s defence in conflict.
The ARF forms a critical component of the new NATO Force Model, which supports the Concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA) and is designed to be complementary to NATO’s Regional Plans agreed to during the Vilnius summit.
The NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy (NRDC-ITA) located in Solbiate Olona will lead the ARF for the next three years. In preparation for this role, NRDC-ITA underwent a rigorous series of activities from military exercises, academic studies and staff training, culminating with Exercise Steadfast Deterrence 24, which validated them as the ARF Headquarters.
An inherently flexible and scalable capability, the ARF is capable of carrying out a full spectrum of missions. It can serve as a rapid deployable strategic reserve in crisis; it can be deployed to deter vertical/horizontal escalation; and it can deploy rapidly in response to crises to other emerging situations. The ARF can deliver forces, fires and effects within 10 days to either strengthen deterrence or provide strategic dilemma to adversaries. It also allows for SACEUR to allocate additional forces to the ARF Commander as required, in any situation.
The ARF will continue to train and develop its multi-domain capabilities through a new series of exercises throughout 2024 and 2025 in order to ensure its readiness as an elite contribution to NATO’s defence.