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Solbiate Olona (VA), 23rd November 2017 - The 14th Annual Plenary Meeting took place yesterday at the “Ugo Mara” barracks, headquarters of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps-Italy. Conducted under the coordination of the Italian Defence General Staff, the conference was aimed at refining the structure of the NRDC-ITA HQ so to adapt to the emerging crisis and to the requirements of the Alliance in term of combat readiness and deployment capabilities. The need for a continuous adaptation of the command and control structures is due to maintain the highest operational standards set by the Alliance to face modern crisis scenario.

This year, Montenegro - the latest country to join NATO in June 2016 - announced its interest to initiate the accession process to the NRDC-ITA. At the same time, four countries more - namely Canada, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania - are about to conclude the process that will shortly bring them to be among the 13 nations currently contributing to the Headquarters in Solbiate Olona.
This Plenary Meeting took place when the HQ is on the verge of assuming the responsibility as Land Component of the eNRF, the "enhanced" NATO Response Force (2018). The eNRF is an advanced military tool that allows the Alliance to face any threat, either for Collective Defense or in so-called Crisis Response Operations, on very short notice.

As Land Component Command of the eNRF the NRDC-ITA will also retain command and control over the land forces of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), whose task is to ensure the very first and immediate NATO response to possible threats, being on 5 to 15 daysnotice to move. The VJTF consists of highly operational multinational forces, currently enhancing the traditional NRF structure. This tool is also supported by an airborne, maritime and special forces component.