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European Rapid Operational Force (EUROFOR)

European Rapid Operational Force (EUROFOR) is a land light force specially prepared to conduct the following tasks in the scope of the Petersberg Declaration, (Bonn, 19th of June 1992) and incorporated in the (Paragraph II 4.) (J.7 Amsterdam Treaty, 1997) amended by the article 17.2 of the Nice Treaty.

• Humanitarian and rescue tasks;
• Peacekeeping tasks;
• Tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking.

These tasks were later Expanded by the article III-309 TCE/2004 as follows:

• Joint disarmament operation;
• Military advice and assistance;
• Post conflict stabilization;
• Fight against terrorism.

Latter these tasks were amended by the provision of articles Article 42(1) & 43 of the Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union (Treaty of Lisbon) as follows:

• Humanitarian and Rescue Tasks;
• Conflict Prevention including Peacekeeping Tasks;
• Tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking;
• Joint disarmament operation;
• Military Advice and Assistance;
• Post Conflict Stabilization;
• Fight Against Terrorism Including Supporting Third Countries.

To carry out these tasks EUROFOR is capable to deploy in a very short time a Field Command Post to command and control a brigade level size unit. Moreover, this capacity this capability might be increased up to division level with minor reinforcements. EUROFOR nowadays stands as a multinational, modular, mobile, interoperable, balanced, joint, deployable and permanently available land force, which will lead the European Union Battle Group 2011 - 2nd Semester.

On 15th March France as the Secretariat nation (France) with the support of EUROFOR HQ organized the 49th SWG Meeting at Predieri Barracks in Florence. The aim of this meeting was to finalize Battle Group related issues such as the Battle Group manning, Operational headquarters and Force Headquarters integration, the Multinational Generic Deployment Plan, the Sustainment Plan, the Training Directive, and Lessons Identified during the preparation phase.The representatives of the four countries also review the concepts &requirements for field exercises Toscana and Bora, the Battle Group Technical Arrangement and debriefed the CIS exercise Mercurius 11.

On 15 October 2009 the European Union Battle Group Coordination Conference held in Brussels agreed with the offer made by Portugal as EUROFOR Secretariat Nation for mounting and leading a European Union Battle Group 1500 during the 2nd Semester 2011. EUROFOR will be on stand by from 1 July to 31 Dec 2011 ready to accomplish any of the Petersberg Missions and all four countries (Spain, France, Italy and Portugal) will participate with units, capabilities and on the headquarters manning.

When the EUROFOR Battle Group (BG) was on stand by after the 1st of July 2011 the chain of command was fully integrated within the European Union Command and Control Command system. In fact, during the following six months EUROFOR BG and the HELBROC BG, would be ready to deploy on behalf of European Union on a short notice (5-10 days) to carry out the following missions: Separation of Parties by Force (SOPF); Stabilization, Reconstruction and Military Advice to third countries (SR); Conflict Prevention (CP); Non-combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO); and Assistance to Humanitarian (HA). Broadly, the European Union holds the capacity to deploy at the same time as an initial entry force (for each six months-period) a force composed of two BG and all the enablers.

Each BG is organized in diverse and specific ways according to the vision of the contributing States. Nevertheless, is important to look broadly into the organization of the EUROFOR BG in order to understand the solutions agreed among the EUROFOR states to raise the 1st multinational BG since the construction of the concept in 2004. The EUROFOR BG is manly organized at 3 different levels, as shown on the next diagram: Deployable Force Headquarters its support unit, the BG core, the BG Combat Support, BG Combat Service Support, and Operational & Strategic Enablers.

The international staff composes the Headquarters and the Headquarters Support Unit (HSU) is an Italian support unit regiment size. This regiment consists one Communication and Information Systems Company and a Combat service support Company. The HSU is ready to support the deployment, operation, and maintenance of a BG size Headquarters for a period of 30 days. This unit is equipped with all shorts of material namely tends, vehicles, containers, weapons, computers, servers, generators, teleconference assets, radios, dish antennas, lightening units, and other equipment in order to allow the staff to work 24 hours a day.

The Portuguese Infantry Battalion composed of three rifles units, with reconnaissance and fire support capability. The battalion is based on wheeled 6x6 armoured personnel carrier Pandur II and 160 other vehicles. Besides, is equipped with the man-portable multi-role recoilless rifle Carl Gustaf, 84mm, and the portable medium range anti-tank missile MILAN and 120mm Mortars.

Portugal also provides the Agusta Westland AW101 Merlin as a medium-lift helicopter with MEDEVAC capacity. The Spanish field artillery unit based on 155mm calibre able to provide fire support and survey within the range of 40km - this unit is equipped with the artillery hunting radar (ARTHUR).

The Spanish Reconnaissance unit is based on armored vehicles 6x6 BMR 625-VEC developed by Pegaso and the PSYOPS unit with production and dissemination capabilities. Spain also provides a CBRN unit able to deliver light decontamination assets. France will provide an air defense unit equipped with infrared homing surface-to-air missile Mistral (SAM) and radar assets together with an HUMINT unit.

Italy will contribute with a CIS unit able to provide Service support, system center and 2 networks, an Electronic Warfare (EW) Unit, and an Engineers Unit. The EW unit is bale to provide electronic support for communications and no communications, electronics attacks and electronics defense. The Engineers unit is able to deliver combat engineers, manoeuvre support, mobility, construction and EOD/IEDD capabilities.

France will contribute with Role 2 Light Manouvre tailored to the mission, a Patient Evacuation Coordination Center, field ambulances and a transport unit with 30 vehicles. Italy also contributes with a GEO unit, which is able to deliver production and analysis capability. Spain made also available a CIMIC unit and Military Police unit with marshalling, traffic Control and investigation capabilities.

Finally, the operational and strategic enables will be provided according to the needs of the deployment. Nevertheless, Portugal offered rotary wing support and cargo capacity based on the Lockheed four-engine turboprop Lockheed C-130 Hercules. Italy also made available the close air support capability and another Lockheed C-130 Hercules to reinforce the airlift capacity as well the air operations coordination center (AOCC). Moreover, Spain offered the APOD, SPOD and Special Forces capacity.