Very High Readiness Joint Task Force

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Very High Readiness Joint Task Force
—VJTF—

Lineup 2015
Country Flag of Germany.svg Germany

Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands Norway
Flag of Norway.svg

Armed forces Army
Air Force
Naval Forces
Special and support forces
Type Flag of NATO.svg NATO Intervention Unit
Strength 5,000 (planned)
Insinuation Flag of NATO.svg NATO Response Force
last seat of the staff Münster in future in StettinFlag of Germany.svg
Flag of Poland.svg

The Very High Readiness Joint Task Force ( VJTF ; German task force with very high readiness ) is in the lineup befindlicher rapidly deployable Eingreifverband of NATO as part of the NATO Response Force (NRF) in brigade strength. Colloquially and in the press, the VJTF is also known as The Spearhead .

founding

Due to the Crimean crisis and the war in Ukraine in 2014/15 , NATO initiated the Readiness Action Plan to protect NATO's eastern flank at the summit in Newport ( Wales ) on September 4th and 5th, 2014. It is intended to increase the speed of reaction of the NATO Response Force (NRF). According to the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg , the VJTF should be even faster, more agile and more capable of acting than the previous NRF units of NATO and should be set up in the greatest readiness.

NATO planners are considering the possibility that aggression by the Russian Federation in the form of hybrid warfare , such as against Ukraine, is also possible against smaller member states such as Estonia . Full operational capability (FOC) of the VJTF should be achieved in 2017. A basic operational capability was planned until the NATO summit in Warsaw in 2016.

As part of the NATO Battlegroup Estonia , parts of the British 20th Panzer Grenadier Brigade (as part of the 3rd Division ) with Challenger 2 main battle tanks were already in use in Estonia. The 20th Panzer Grenadier Brigade took on the role of land component of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF (L)) under the leadership of Brigadier Mike Elviss MBE for the first time in 2017 .

composition

The VJTF is to consist of a multinational land force contingent of 5,000 soldiers with up to five battalions and additional components of the air force, naval force, special and support forces. Germany will provide up to 2,700 soldiers. Great Britain, France, Italy, Poland and Spain also agreed to take over the leadership of the VJTF in the next few years. The future headquarters will be the Multinational Corps North-East in Szczecin .

For quick deployment, small command and control facilities, so-called NATO Force Integration Units (NFIU), are to be set up in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania and staffed on a rotation basis. The NFIU work closely with offices in the host country to explore logistical networks, questions of transport and support in the infrastructure. With the help of the NFIUs, some units of the VJTF should be ready for use in just two days.

The Bundeswehr makes its barracks in Münster available as headquarters. The German-Dutch corps stationed there is to prepare NATO for increased leadership and operational readiness, said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier . Even before the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, the Bundeswehr had promised to provide a large part of the troops for the rapid reaction force that had been planned until then . According to NATO, the provisional association is an interim solution until a larger unit is organized in 2016. The 371 Panzer Grenadier Battalion in Marienberg forms the core of the German portion with around 900 soldiers. For 2019 the German 1st Panzer Division is the lead division of the VJTF-L (land component).

For the Bundeswehr soldiers deployed as VJTF, this means training at the highest level and the regular soldiers deployed as part of the VJTF must be in the barracks within ten hours, since the vanguard should leave two to three days after the alarm is raised Main forces after five to seven days.

criticism

The head of the Estonian Military Intelligence Service, Lieutenant Colonel Kaupo Rosin, doubted that policy makers would dispatch the force quickly enough. He based his assessment on the sometimes weeks-long refusal by some states to recognize the unmarked special forces of the Russian Federation that had occupied Crimea as Russian troops. It will be problematic to provide these NATO countries with convincing evidence in good time. According to estimates by military analysts and that of NATO General Ben Hodges from June 2016, troops of the Russian Federation could conquer the Baltic capitals in 36 to 60 hours, earlier than NATO could deploy its reinforcements.

The chairman of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag , Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD), criticized the inadequate staffing of the VJTF. "With 5,000 men, NATO does not defend a single country," said Bartels.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Defense News, September 6, 2014: NATO Allies Commit to Defense Boost.Retrieved December 19, 2014
  2. ↑ a b Tagesschau , December 2, 2014: Intervene faster, talk more ( Memento from December 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Accessed: December 19, 2014
  3. ↑ "VJTF: NATO is even faster" BMVg of October 16, 2014
  4. ↑ Steven McGuire: NATO's Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (Land) 2017: An Analysis. Retrieved October 8, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Commander of NATO VJTF Land Component is visiting Lithuania. June 29, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2018 .
  6. ^ "The Bundeswehr and NATO plans for 2015 ( Memento from January 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) www.stern.de from January 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ t-online, December 2, 2014: Rapid reaction force should "travel lightly and strike hard". Accessed: December 19, 2014
  8. ↑ "Russia could soon run multiple Ukraine-sized operations -US general" Reuters January 16, 2015, viewed January 16, 2015
  9. ↑ ZEIT ONLINE, tst: "According to the US commander, the Baltic States can hardly be defended" Die Zeit from June 22, 2016
  10. ↑ NATO and the Bundeswehr are not prepared for an emergency , Focus from February 28, 2015