What is the NATO Response Force?
While many people know what NATO is, the NATO Response Force (NRF) remains less well known. So what is it? The NRF is a military force within NATO that trains to be ready to respond to any major threat that it is called to respond to.
The basic idea is that the NRF will be the fastest available response force to provide for an immediate defence capability before anyone else is able to respond and arrive on the scene. The key word here is defence!
The NRF can respond to many different mission needs wherever a crisis emerges in the world and can provide for crisis management, peace support operations, disaster relief, and the protection of critical infrastructure.
This seems like it would be expensive, why is it worth it?
While this all seems costly, NATO takes great care to focus resources wisely. By pooling forces and sharing capabilities, NATO more effectively balances its political and military needs in a cost-effective manner.
What capabilities does the NRF have?
The NRF has land, air, sea, special operations, Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear specialists, and logistical capabilities. The units that handle these capabilities within the NRF rotate every year. In order to qualify as NRF ready, these units under go intensive national training and then a six-month NATO exercise program. This ensures that NATO is able to integrate and standardise the various national contingents.
So who makes up the NRF this year?
Overall command of the NRF force belongs to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, but there are many layers to the NRF command structure.
Two of NATO’s three Joint Force Commands (based in Brunssum, The Netherlands, and Naples, Italy) can exercise command and control over assigned forces within the NRF each year, on a rotational basis. In basic terms, the JFC are headquarters for the NRF.
For the NRF 2021 rotation, JFC Naples is the designated and certified Stand-By Command.
Therefore if the North Atlantic Council activates the NRF at any time during 2021, JFC Naples will provide the Commander and necessary command and control elements for the incident.
This year the NRF consists of the following units:
- Land: Turkey
- Air: Italian Joint Force Air Component (JFAC) HQ
- Maritime: French Maritime Force (SPMARFOR)
- Special Operations: Deutsch/ Netherlands Corps
- Joint Logistic Support Group (JLSG) from JFC Naples
Also contributing to the NRF 2021 package is the Czech CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence) Task Force.
Air, land, maritime, Special Forces, and logistics troops from these nations across the Alliance have been placed on a high level of readiness and are available to support NRF 2021 if required.
When did the NRF concept begin? And how has it developed over time? What does the future hold?
The NRF was established in 2002 from the Berlin Plus Agreement as a high readiness force comprising of air, land, maritime and special forces units capable of rapid deployment.
At the 2014 Wales Summit, NATO Allies agreed to enhance the capabilities of the NRF in order to adapt and respond to emerging security challenges.
Having carefully considered the options presented during post-Wales discussions, the decision to incorporate a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) within the overall NRF structure was taken, increasing the size of the NRF to 40,000 and providing NATO with a highly capable and flexible air, land, maritime and special forces package capable of deploying at short notice when tasked, between two to seven days.