Non-Subscriber Extract
NATO looks to shrink core of its response force
29 October 2007
NATO defence ministers have tasked their Military Committee to determine how to reduce the core of the NATO Response Force (NRF) amid pressures from continuing operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said ministers had agreed at a meeting in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, on 24-25 October that there should be a "graduated approach" to the NRF in which the concept, range of missions and ultimate size of the force would remain unchanged. He explained that the Military Committee would determine the size of a core that would be able to ramp up to 25,000 troops, which is the current size of the force. Jane's understands that this would mean a core made up of support troops and enablers on standby ready to rapidly mobilise and deploy a larger force.