As the German Air Force reported at the beginning of February, its annual rotating readiness as part of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) as an exposed part of the NATO Response Force (NRF) ended last month. The German Air Force took over VJTF responsibility as Air Component Standby from the French Air Force in January 2023. This task force must be operational within three to five days.
Last year, the German Joint Forces Air Component Headquarters (JFAC HQ - DEU), as part of the national air operations center in Kalkar, Lower Rhine, provided the multinational air command post within the VJTF framework of the Atlantic Alliance. The JFAC HQ (DEU) is one of a total of six AirC² command posts (Air Command and Control), which serve the larger European NATO member states - France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Turkey - as well as the United States as national members of the North Atlantic Alliance Provide contribution within the framework of the NATO Force Structure.
Reviews
The past year was eventful for the German Air Force. In June, the largest deployment exercise in the history of the Atlantic Alliance, the multinational air force exercise “Air Defender 2023”, was conducted under German responsibility from the command post of the Air Operations Center in Kalkar. The command post in Kalkar also took over operational management of NATO air operations in Europe from NATO's Allied Air Command (HQ AIRCOM) in Ramstein from September to November - for the first time in the history of the North Atlantic Alliance. HQ AIRCOM is a tactical-level headquarters of the NATO Command Structure, directly subordinate to Allied Command Operations in Mons, Belgium.
The VJTF was set up in 2015 as NATO's response to Russia's violent annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Donbas to increase the response speed of the NATO Response Force. The NRF, for its part, had already been formed in 2003. In February 2022, in response to the major Russian attack on the entire Ukraine, the NRF was activated for a military mission - strengthening NATO's eastern flank - for the first time in its history.
Gerd Portugall
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