Multinational Division Central

Multinational Division Central - MND (C) -
Association badge
active	April 1, 1994 (standby) until October 25, 2002 (roll call out of service)
Country	United Kingdom  Germany Netherlands Belgium
Armed forces	army
Type	Airmobile Division
Insinuation	ARRC
last seat of the staff	JHQ Rheindahlen
commander
last commander	GenMaj Marc Jacqmin

The Multinational Division Central ( MND (C) ) was a multinational division of NATO for Central Europe and had its headquarters in the JHQ Rheindahlen near Mönchengladbach .

The concept of this first real multinational division of NATO with the four participating nations Belgium , Germany , Great Britain and the Netherlands dates back to the Cold War . The airmobile MND (C) was to support the Northern Army Group Central Europe (NORTHAG) as a reserve unit . The MND (C) was ready for action on April 1, 1994.

The division staff consisted of 50 officers, 54 non-commissioned officers and the men. The headquarters company initially comprised 154 soldiers from Germany. The first commander was Major General Pieter Huysman from the Netherlands.

Until the division is fully activated, each nation should provide a paratrooper or airborne brigade, combat support units, and supply units.

It was fully structured and had four brigades from the four participating nations:

• the Belgian Para-Commando-Brigade (Eversberg)
• the German Airborne Brigade 31 (Oldenburg)
• the British 24th Airmobile Brigade (Colchester), from 1999: the 16 Air Assault Brigade and
• the Dutch 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade (Schaarsbergen)

With a nominal strength of 20,000 soldiers (including 5,600 soldiers from the Bundeswehr ), the MND-C was the most important multinational Rapid Reaction Forces stationed in Europe with the possibility of worldwide military interventions. If necessary, the division would have been subordinate to the larger Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC).

As Forces Answerable to WEU (FAWEU) it was also possible to mobilize the MND (C) for military operations on behalf of the Western European Union (WEU).

Since NATO increasingly oriented itself towards other crisis reaction forces (High Readiness Force (Land)), the headquarters of the MND (C) was dissolved on October 25, 2002. The last commanding officer was Major General Marc Jacqmin.

Web links

• Decommissioning report ( Memento of February 16, 2003 in the Internet Archive )

Coordinates: 51 ° 10 ′ 35 ″  N , 6 ° 19 ′ 18 ″  E