The Allied Rapid Reaction Corps is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization High Readiness Force Headquarters ready for deployment worldwide.
History
The ARRC was created on 2 October 1992 in Bielefeld based on the former British I Corps. It was originally created as the rapid reaction corps sized land force of the Reaction Forces Concept that emerged after the end of the Cold War, with a mission to redeploy and reinforce within Allied Command Europe and to conduct Petersberg missions out of NATO territory. The first commander, appointed in 1992 was General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie. From 1994 the ARRC was based in the Rheindahlen Military Complex, Germany. It commanded the Land Forces of NATO's first ever deployment as part of the Implementation Force operation in Bosnia in 1995/6 and was again deployed as the headquarters commanding Land Forces during the Kosovo War in 1999. In 1997 assigned forces included the 7th Panzer Division; 2nd Greek Mechanised Division; 1st Turkish Mechanised Division ; 1st Armored Division; plus other formations, including two British divisions. Since 2002 however the HQ has been re-roled as a High Readiness Force HQ with a broader mission. The formation HQ is under Operational Command of Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. The ARRC has a national Force Pool of Combat, Combat Support and Combat Service Support units with which to train and execute its mission. However, in reality COMARRC commands no forces until he receives an Activation Order from SACEUR. On receipt of ACTORD, forces from troop contributing nations, generated through the NATO Force Generation process are passed into his Operational Command for the duration of the operational deployment. ARRC took command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan on 4 May 2006 and then relocated from Rheindahlen to Imjin Barracks, outside Gloucester in England, in 2010 before deploying to support the ISAF Joint Command Headquarters in Afghanistan in 2011. ARRC is also regionally aligned with the European region as part of defence engagement.
The deployable headquarters infrastructure and communications for HQ ARRC is provided by the 1st Signal Brigade under the Army 2020 concept. Currently the corps control the following divisions ;
