Allied Rapid Reaction Corps declared combat ready

Courtesy Photo | British Army Lt. Gen. Sir Edward Smythe-Osbourne, commander of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, holds a guidon on South Cerney, United Kingdom, Nov. 19, 2020, during a ceremony marking the ARRC's combat readiness. Smythe-Osbounre was accompanied by Canadian Army Warrant Officer Kevin J. Mathers and U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier Jr., the command team of the Allied Land Command from Izmir, Turkey; and ARRC Command Sergeant Major Stuart Davies. The ARRC was declared ‘combat ready’ after passing their combat readiness evaluation or CREVAL. The ARRC was presented with NATO’s new ‘warfighting guidon’, which it will now hold throughout its tenure as NATO’s War Fighting Corps at readiness until January 2022. (Photo by British Army Warrant Officer 2 Jamie Peters)  

GLS, UNITED KINGDOM

11.19.2020

Courtesy Story

NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

SOUTH CERNEY, Gloucestershire. The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps has been declared ‘combat ready’ after passing their combat readiness evaluation or CREVAL. The ARRC was presented with NATO’s new ‘warfighting guidon’, which it will hold throughout its tenure as NATO’s War Fighting Corps at readiness until January 2022.

Presenting the warfighting guidon, the Commander of Allied Land Command, Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier Jr, said,

“As NATO Commander responsible for conducting this evaluation, I’m pleased to say the ARRC has done a phenomenal job here and is ready. They’ve demonstrated their ability to operate and train in a COVID environment, and…

“they’ve demonstrated their mastery of combat operations in the context of multi-domain operations.”

The ARRC Commander, Lieutenant General Sir Edward Smythe-Osbourne said,

“This is a distinct honour for Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. The first such headquarters, since the Cold War, to serve in role as NATO’s corps warfighting headquarters.

“It is a responsibility to be ready, come whatever the hour, whatever the task.”

This certification follows more than nine months of evaluation by Allied Land Command, with the final field assessment phase during exercise Loyal Leda 2020 in the U.K. This computer aided exercise involved over 1000 ARRC personnel and key enablers from 21 nations, with wider collaboration from military units and civilian organisations across Europe and North America.

CREVAL assures the Alliance that ARRC operates to NATO standards and can work alongside other NATO nations, with multinational Divisions and up to 120,000 troops under command. Commander, Allied Land Command, Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier Jr, added,

“We must be able to operate together as an Alliance if called upon, from crisis response all the way up to major combat operations. This is important because we have multiple Corps headquarters and multiple subordinate units that could be cross-attached from one Corps to the other depending on the circumstances.

Notably, the ARRC is supporting Romania’s Multi-National Corps - South East (MNC-SE), who were involved in the exercise, reach interim operational capability by December 2021 and we will hand over the War Fighting Corps guidon and readiness responsibility to NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Spain (NRDC-ESP) in January 2022.

• Date Taken: 11.19.2020
• Date Posted: 11.20.2020 07:55
• Story ID: 383430
• Location: GLS, GB