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Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps
AARC
Active 2 October 1992 - Present
Country

Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom

and 16 other nations
Allegiance

Flag of the United Kingdom Her Majesty's Armed Forces

and 16 others
Branch

Flag of the British Army British Army

and 16 others
Type

Flag of NATO High Readiness Force (Land) HQ

Flag of NATO NATO Response Force (temporary)
Part of Flag of NATO SHAPE
Garrison/HQ Imjin Barracks, Innsworth Flag of the United Kingdom
Motto(s)

Audentis fortuna iuvat

Fortune favours the brave
Commanders
Current
commander
Lieutenant General Tim Evans Flag of the United Kingdom Commander (COMARRC)
Major General Marcello Bellacicco Flag of Italy, Deputy Commander (DCOMARRC)
Major General Julian Free Flag of the United Kingdom, Chief of Staff (COSARRC)

The Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, (HQ ARRC or ARRC) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation High Readiness Force (Land) Headquarters ready for deployment worldwide within five to thirty days.

History[]

HQ ARRC was created on 2 October 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former British I Corps (or I (BR) Corps).[1] It was originally created as the rapid reaction corps sized land force of the Reaction Forces Concept that emerged after the end of the Cold War, with a mission to redeploy and reinforce within Allied Command Europe (ACE) and to conduct Petersberg missions out of NATO territory. The first commander, appointed in 1992 was General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie.[2]

From 1994 the ARRC was based in the Rheindahlen Military Complex, Germany. It commanded the Land Forces of NATO's first ever deployment as part of the IFOR operation in Bosnia in 1995/6 and was again deployed as the headquarters commanding Land Forces during the Kosovo War in 1999.[3]

Since 2002 however the HQ has been re-roled (with five other corps HQs of other NATO nations) as a High Readiness Force (Land) HQ (HRF(L)) with a broader mission. The formation HQ is under Operational Command of Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). The ARRC has a notional Force Pool of Combat, Combat Support and Combat Service Support units with which to train and execute its mission. However in reality COMARRC commands no forces until he receives an Activation Order from SACEUR. On receipt of ACTORD, forces from troop contributing nations, generated through the NATO Force Generation process are passed into his Operational Command for the duration of the operational deployment.

Although the corps is commanded by a British Army lieutenant-general, the corps is no longer a purely British formation HQ. The UK is the 'framework nation' and provides about 80% of the funding and 60% of the staff for the HQ. The remaining 40% of the staff are made up of a further 14 Partner Nations.

ARRC took command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan on 4 May 2006 and then relocated from Rheindahlen to Imjin Barracks, outside Gloucester in England, in 2010[4] before deploying to support the ISAF Joint Command Headquarters in Afghanistan in 2011.[5]

Structure[]

Currently (October 2012) the structure of HQ ARRC is as follows:[6]

  • Commander (UK),
  • Deputy Commander (Italy),
  • Chief of Staff (UK),
  • Air Land Operation Coordination Cell (Germany),
  • Central Staffs (Denmark),
  • Engineers and Civil Support (UK),
  • Training and Security Force Assistance (UK),
  • Joint Fires and Influence Branch (UK),
  • Operations (US),
  • Personnel and Logistics (UK),
  • Command Information Systems (UK),
  • ARRC Intelligence and Security (UK),
  • ARRC Enabling Command (Germany).

The deployable headquarters infrastructure and communications for HQ ARRC is provided by 1 (UK) Signal Brigade.

Recent Commanders[]

Recent commanders have included:[7]

Sources and External links[]

References[]

Coordinates: 51°10′35″N 6°19′18″E / 51.17639°N 6.32167°E / 51.17639; 6.32167

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Headquarters Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and the edit history here.