armed forces
Allies in
BÉTERA
NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Spain
Headquarters is this year available to the
Alliance for use as a joint force command
THE first thing one sees
when entering the NATO
Headquarters in Bétera is
eleven masts with the flags
of eleven countries, and in
the middle is the banner of the Atlantic
Alliance. Military personnel from
France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland,
Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey,
the United Kingdom and the United
States work there every day. This year,
the Czech Republic is also present and,
therefore, soon there will be twelve flags.
The pace of this unit has increased
in the past months since it obtained the
certification to be used as a joint force
command. After the evaluation in
Menorca last October during exercise
Trident Jackal, this Headquarters will
remain available to the Alliance with
this task throughout 2020.
If activated, it could project, direct
and exercise command and control
over a joint force ranging from 50,000
to 80,000 troops. This is what Bétera
has been prepared for. The commander
of this joint force is Lieutenant General
Fernando García-Vaquero, head of
the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps
- Spain Headquarters (NRDC-ESP).
The spectrum of conflicts it could
respond to is very wide; however, this
General focuses on two NATO flanks:
“In Eastern Europe, NATO is facing
a scenario of a conventional nature
combined with non-classical (hybrid)
procedures. In the South, however,
the threat is not so conventional, and
is based more on terrorist or criminal
groups acting from safe havens in the
Sahel region and leading to instability
in our nations, outside our borders and
even in energy transit lines, maritime
routes, etc.”
VALENCIA AS A MILITARY BASE
This Headquarters is the result of a
strategic concept defined by the Alliance
in 1999, at a time when it looked as
though the old confrontation between
blocks would disappear for good.
The new threats made it advisable
to have a number of units and
means permanently available and, in
particular, to have easily deployable
high readiness headquarters.
In this regard, the Alliance launched
an offer of participation to its member
states, and Spain responded with the
commitment to establishing one of these
headquarters in Bétera (Valencia).
In 2002, this unit conducted its first
deployment at the Zaragoza training
area for its validation, and NATO
evaluators were able to verify and
certify that it met all the operational
requirements demanded by the Atlantic
Alliance.
Similarly, Military Base “Jaime I”
in Bétera meets the strict conditions
and standards set by the Alliance. It
is a modern facility, suitable for the
troops it houses. In addition to the
55 of the 300
military staff at
the headquarters
come from allied
countries
34 Revista Española de Defensa April 2020