STRIKFORNATO deploys to NRDC-TURKEY

Ayazaga, Turkey - In the first half of April, STRIKFORNATO staff members from the Operations, Planning, and Intelligence directorates deployed to Ayazaga, Turkey, near Istanbul, to advise and assist NATO Rapid Deployable Corps (NRDC), Turkey during their Battle Staff Training. Battle Staff Training is a formal milestone event to prepare the headquarters for certification for their on-call period as part of the NATO Response Force (NRF). Both NRDC Turkey and STRIKFORNATO will fulfill positions in the NRF in 2017 as Joint Headquarters, for Land Operations and Maritime Expeditionary Operations, respectively. These staff provided specific subject matter expertise in Joint Targeting and Planning, as well as Air Operations and Medical Planning, to support the training event as well as to exercise their own capabilities as part of STRIKFORNATO’s own certification.

NATO’s Rapid Deployable Corps are high readiness headquarters which can be quickly dispatched to lead NATO troops on missions within or beyond the territory of NATO member states, are trained to face the multi-dimensional challenges of the new security environment, and are able to deploy on short notice and excel at the provision of effective Command, Control and Communications.

CAPT JP LaBruzzo, USN, the lead for the SFN delegation, stated that the event "was a great opportunity to test cross functional staff and decision making processes against a challenging and realistic scenario. The training provided by the Joint Warfare Center is second-to-none.”