Today, at the "Ugo MARA" Barracks, the ceremony took place that sanctioned the passing of the baton in the command of the ground component of the NATO Response Force (NRF) among the British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), commanded by Corps General Tim Radford, and the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Italy (NRDC-ITA) commanded by Corps General Roberto Perretti.
Ceremony held in the presence of the Army Chief of Staff, Army Corps General Danilo Errico, the Commander of the Allied Interforces Operational Command of Brunssum in the Netherlands, Corps General Salvatore Farina and the Commander of the Allied Land Command ( LANDCOM) - Corps General Darryl A. Williams.
It is the fourth time that the NRDC has taken over the land component (Land Component) of the NATO Response Force.
The NRDC completed a period of preparation and training of over a year before being declared "combat ready" on the occasion of the "Brilliant Ledger 2017" exercise which involved in Solbiate Olona (VA) and Bellinzago Novarese (NO), over 1000 soldiers from 15 NATO nations and 85 units of the Italian Armed Forces.
NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Italy is a multinational Command based in Solbiate Olona (VA), it is under the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe (SACEUR). Italy is the leading nation and provides about 75% of the staff. The remaining 25% is made up of soldiers from twelve other nations: Albania, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and Hungary for a total of about 400 men and women. In the near future, 4 other nations: Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania will join the Command thus bringing the number of contributing countries to seventeen.
The NATO Response Force, created in 2002, following the decisions taken at the 2014 Summit in Wales, the NRF has been enhanced with a very high level of readiness called the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF). modular, able to explain itself immediately.
