ARRC Headquarters staff hold a COVID-19
update brief at Imjin Barracks.
Going
Viral
NATO troops respond to COVID-19 outbreak in U.K.
Staff from NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction
Corps have deployed to London
and across South West England in
response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The group include specialist military
planners from the British Armed
Forces, as well as French army (l’armée
de Terre) staff. They are helping to
reinforce the newly-established “COVID
Support Force” as part of the U.K.
Ministry of Defence response to the
crisis.
Major Rob Kennerley, who is working in
London, explained: “It’s important as
a military to respond because we’ve
got the organisational skills to make it
happen.
“We’re dependable, we’ve done this
before in times of crisis, and we’re
ready to react pretty quickly to
anything that comes up.”
LONDON CALLING
Addressing the staff as they prepared
to depart Imjin Barracks, Lieutenant
General Sir Edward Smyth-Osbourne,
said: “I think it’s incredibly important
that we are doing what we can from the
NATO Corps Headquarters here in the
U.K. to support.
“And I think it is really noteworthy that
we have an international presence
in here. But if you ask a multinational
NATO Corps Headquarters to do
something, it strikes me as obvious,
particularly when this virus affects all
our nations, that if at all possible we
deploy on a multinational basis.”
We’re ready
to react to
anything that
comes up.
GO WEST
Dozens of ARRC staff have been
dispersed across Wiltshire, Somerset
and the Channel Islands in support of
the National Health Service.
Major Chris Bell is working alongside the
team responsible for communications at
NHS South West in Taunton, Somerset.
He said: “They’ve two major audiences –
the 6.5 million people in the region who
need to know what the Health Service
will do for them, as well as internal
comms to the NHS staff themselves
during this time of long hours and
stress and real risk of infection.
“It’s an absolute honour to be able to
assist the people who make the NHS
work.”
For the latest news on the ARRC’s
response to COVID-19 visit
www.arrc.nato.int
4
SUMMER 2020 the imjin
Major exercises
cancelled
British Army engineers rehearse river
crossing drills ahead of Defender Europe.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak,
NATO has taken a number of
precautionary measures to reduce
the unnecessary spread of the virus
– including scaling down the U.S.-
led multinational Exercise ‘Defender
Europe 20’.
Two of the key phases of the
exercise involving the ARRC have
been cancelled, including the ‘Joint
Warfare Assessment’ in Graenwöhr,
Germany, and the linked ‘Allied
Spirit’ field training exercise in
Poland during May.
The massive exercises would
have seen thousands of NATO
troops temporarily come under the
command of the Gloucester-based
corps.
@HQARRC
Allied Rapid Reaction Corps