armed forces
This headquarters has already participated in two real
operations, in Pakistan and Afghanistan
puts it— had the privilege of
participating in both missions.
“In Pakistan, I commanded
the transmission centre that
provides telecommunication
service to the headquarters.
In Afghanistan, I was part of
the psychological operations
planning team. It is impossible
to forget those days, when a
serviceman puts into practice
everything he has learned in
his years of training”.
Two years after the mission
in Afghanistan, at the 2014
Wales Summit, and after
Russia’s annexation of Crimea,
NATO made some changes to
its high-readiness forces to
make them more agile and yet more
powerful, and hence the Very High
Readiness Joint Task Force or VJTF
was established.
Bétera Headquarters was the first
NATO unit to command the VJTF,
a force that was certified after a
deployment and following an exercise
in different locations in Spain, Italy
and Portugal in 2015 during exercise
Trident Juncture.
commander Ana Maria Tamas.
“We can’t leave anything to
improvisation”, she adds.
This ability to adapt, and the
process of learning lessons, has
allowed Bétera to easily reinforce
other organizations, such as the
OHQ of the European Union
Rapid Response Force in 2010,
2017 and 2019.
ESSENTIAL SUPPORT
In order to fulfil its missions
within the demanding deadlines
set by the Alliance, Bétera has
a Headquarters Battalion: “We
provide the necessary means and
personnel for the deployment
and functioning of the HQ
NRDC-ESP
during operations”, says Lieutenant
Colonel Diego Rosales, head of the
battalion. This year, in which this
Headquarters is placed at the disposal
of NATO, logistic planning is vital.
“Everything is in order: the materiel is
ready, our people are prepared and the
procedures have been rehearsed”.
In addition, this battalion carries
out a wide range of support tasks
enabling daily work in Bétera: “From
providing permanent security to the
facilities and escorting authorities, to
supplying drivers, health care and the
necessary logistic support to organize
meetings and conferences”. It is also
the fundamental support for the
organization and implementation of
all the training exercises in which this
headquarters participates.
Another key component is the
Military Police Battalion, responsible
for providing security to the command
post “so that the headquarters can
carry out its main task: the command
and control of the units”, points out its
commander, Lieutenant Colonel Iñigo
Pérez. It also assumes route control
in deployments and has, “among
other exclusive capabilities”, a section
devoted to police intervention and
the protection of authorities. “It’s a
unique unit in the whole of the Armed
Forces”, points out this lieutenant
Soldiers from the Headquarters Battalion during
the deployment to the island of Menorca
for exercise Trident Jackal 19.
In this process, in which the
multinational unit has adapted to new
missions in new scenarios, it has been
crucial to follow the “Lessons Learned”
procedure established by NATO
doctrine. “Identifying where and how
to improve is essential when making
decisions during a military operation,
especially in a rapid deployment unit
like this one”, explains one of the
officers assigned to this task, Romanian
Planning actions for the control and conduct of operations are prepared in the regular
meetings of the General Staff.
April 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 37