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Jana 2015/ issue 04
overview
editorial board
Public Affairs Office
Chief PAO OF-5 (H AF) SIDIROPOULOS Stavros
SO2 Media OPS OF-3 (HE A) NIKEZIS Elias
SA1 Media Monitoring & Analysis OR-9 (HE A)
THEODOROU Georgios
Chief Production & Web Admin OR-9 (HE A)
ROUMELIOTIS Sotirios
SA1 Writing Imagery & Web Services OR-7 (HE A)
FOUNTOUKIDIS Georgios
editorial
Dear readers,
Executive Assistant
PANTELIDIS Simeon
Communication Information
Tel.: +30 2310 882452 / IVSN 451-2452
email: [email protected],
email: [email protected]
www.nrdc.gr
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/nrdcgreece
Happy New Year and welcome to the fourth issue of
the Herald NRDC-GR Magazine, where we bring you the
views, opinions and experiences of the NRDC-GR staff
and others in the NATO forces. Our hope is to provide
you with the most current and informed perspectives
on our global, military, security, historical and collaborative activities.
editorial
NRDC-GR HQs Commander’s adress
p.01
special guests
Forever In Our Thoughts p.02
SACEUR General Philip M. BREEDLOVE Interview
p.03
COM LANDCOM Lt. Gen John NICHOLSON Interview
p.07
“New wars, New Media?p.10
articles
New DCOS OPS in NRDC – GR
p.12
JTS-FAST User’s Groupp.13
RSC WORKSHOP “RSC Transformation To JLSG”
p.14
NRDC-GREECE EX. GORDIAN BONUS II/2014 p.15
NRDC-GREECE EX. GORDIAN BONUS III/2014
p.16
Procurement Of Sage Financial Software
p.17
Cyber Awarenessp.18
Legal Aspects in Collective Defence Operations
p.20
Antikythera Mechanism
p.23
Exercise “GORDIAN KNOT - 14” p.25
seminars - conferences
NRDC-GR Hosted The II/2014 LANDCOM
Corps Commanders’ Conference Exercise GORDIAN KNOT 2014 Main Planning Conference NRDC-GR G3 AIR Seminar NRDC-GR AOCC Seminar “IKAROS II/14” Gender Seminar nrdc-gr 10th Plenary Conference 2014 Annual LOAC Conference 2015 p.29
p.33
p.34
p.35
p.36
p.38
p.39
comunity relations
Commander KFOR/JLSG -Visit to NRDC-GR French Flag Raising Ceremony Chief of the United Kingdom Defense Staff visit to
NRDC-GR HQ LANDCOM’s DCOM Visit to NRDC-GR Chief of the Hungarian Defense 9th Anniversary of NRDC-GR German Flag Raising Ceremony Turkish Flag Raising Ceremony Hellenic National Defence College (HNDC) Visit
to NRDC- GREECE Albanian Flag Raising Ceremony Commander’s NRDC-GR Visit to KFOR HQ C’ CORPS / NRDC-GR Christmas Wishes Ceremony
p.41
p.42
p.43
p.44
p.45
p.46
p.47
p.48
p.49
p.50
p.51
p.52
This past year demanded much of everyone involved
with NRDC-GR and those individuals and organizations
together with whom we worked during the planning
and execution of the HQ’s activities and exercises. We
would like to acknowledge the great effort given on
the part of all who participated, which included national
and multi-national personnel.
2014 also marked a year of great progress and
growth for the Herald Magazine, which, along with
NRDC-GR’s website (www.nrdc.gr), the NRDC-GR YouTube Channel, and the NRDC-GR Flickr, continues to
grow and reach new audiences both in Greece and
Worldwide.
As always, the Public Affairs Office would like to express its thanks to our contributing guests and writers
for the articles, interviews, news and events coverage,
and more. We remind you that the views expressed in
the articles are those of the contributing writers and
do not represent the official opinions of NRDC-GR or
NATO.
Additionally, we want to thank our readers for their
support. We value your contributions, criticisms, and
praises in our goal of informing you on the latest developments at NDRC-GR Headquarters. Any input and
ideas you may have to improve the experience we deliver are greatly appreciated, and we welcome individuals who wish to write and be included in our next issue.
In closing, we wish you and your families, health
and prosperity, and above all courage to our staff, allies
and our comrades-in-arms in facing challenges in the
upcoming year.
Best wishes,
Stavros SIDIROPOULOS
OF-5 (HAF)
Chief PAO/StratCom Advisor
editorial
Commander NRDC – GR HQs
Lieutenant General LEONTARIS ILIAS
Dear readers,
Welcome to the 4th issue of the “HQ
NRDC-GR Herald”, a bi-annual review with
the aim of advertising our efforts and make
our HQ more visible to the outside world.
Our main focus in the second half of 2014
was the preparation and execution of the
Exercise “GORDIAN KNOT – 14” which was
nested within LANDCOM’s Exercise “TRIDENT LANCE -14”. NRDC-GR conducted operations as a High Readiness Corps HQ under
LANDCOM, and supported – together with
NRDC-T and MNC-NE - its FOC Evaluation as
Land Component Command in a Major Joint
Operation (+).
Exercise “GOKT -14” proved a unique
training opportunity for our staff to improve
their skills and capabilities and re-establish a
“warfighting mind-set”. From 30 November
to 12 December over 1,300 personnel from
13 NATO countries, deployed in three different locations in the broader area of Thessaloniki, worked together and proved their
ability to accomplish their mission.
Exercise “GOKT – 14” also served as a
vehicle for our HQ to undergo a National
Evaluation for its FOC as an HRF HQ; a status
granted by the Host Nation at the end of the
exercise.
Such a result could not be achieved without a very well-coordinated effort. Our staff
worked methodically and systematically to
prepare and conduct the exercise. A plethora
of workshops, seminars, Battle Staff training
events and other training and planning activities were conducted, which ultimately led to
the successful execution of the exercise and
the evaluation itself.
Above all, we are grateful to the augmentees, mostly provided by the Host Nation, as
well as to personnel coming from other NATO
HQs and our Affiliated Formations and Units.
They all made tremendous efforts to respond
to demanding situations and their performance was excellent.
Another significant activity that took place
since the last issue was the LANDCOM Corps
Commanders’ Conference II/2015. The conference was organised by LANDCOM and hosted
at NRDC-GR premises from 14 to 16 October.
The overarching theme of the conference,
chaired by COM LANDCOM, was “Building a
LAND Community: Learning Lessons & Sharing Ideas”. Since it was conducted quite close
to the Wales Summit it became an excellent
venue to discuss how the decisions made by
the Heads of States affect NATO Land Forces,
thus attracting high level participants. Apart
from the NFS HQs Commanders, SACEUR,
DSACEUR, COM AIRCOM, COS HQ SACT as
well as the Greek CHOD and the Greek Chief
of the Army were present.
The whole event was a great success not
only because of the high level and the number of participants but also because of the
constructive discussions and the excellent
support provided by our HQ staff. Congratulations to all people involved for a job very well
done.
Speaking about the Wales Summit it is
worth to mention the key outcome that
sparked a lot of work at NATO HQ; NATO
needs to improve its responsiveness and
adaptation in order to be able to meet any
threat in a continuously changing security environment. Implementation of the Readiness
Action Plan will demonstrate NATO’s resolve
and capability to meet growing external security challenges, both at its borders and
further afield. We monitor the latest developments such as the VJTF concept and are ready
to support any requirement from our HQ that
may arise. However, this might be a long term
commitment.
Entering 2015 our battle rhythm is getting
more and more intensive. We shifted our focus to the preparation and execution of Exercise “GOKT-15” which will be the test bed
for our CREVAL, led by LANDCOM. The work
has already started in close coordination with
LANDCOM. We will move forward by streamlining our procedures in all domains, whilst
applying the relevant lessons identified and
core documents refinement in order to consolidate the achieved HRF status, thus creating the desirable conditions for a successful
evaluation in June 2015. Upon successful
CREVAL our transition towards JHQ will start
immediately in order to be ready for our mission in the Long Term Rotation Plan (LTRP) by
July 2018.
There is no doubt that this HQ gets its power from its highly qualified personnel. Taking
this opportunity I would like to express my
appreciation to all staff officers and NCOs for
the outstanding performance and contribution to NRDC-GR at all activities and events.
Finally, I hope you will enjoy this issue and
appreciate the hard work being done by the
people involved in the preparation and publication of this magazine.
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special guests
Forever in Our Thoughts
T
his magazine, Herald issue 4, is dedicated to all Greek and French personnel
lost their lives when a Greek two-seated F-16 Fighter Jet failed to take off and
crashed on five other aircrafts that where
parked at the area. The tragic accident
happened in Albacete airbase housing a
NATO training centre for elite pilots, in
central Spain on Monday 26th of January 2015 at 15:16 hrs whilst participating within a planned mission of Training
Leadership Program Flying Course.
The Tactical Leadership Program is a
unique, standalone organization based
on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Air Forces of
Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany,
Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, United
2
Kingdom and United States of America.
The tactical leadership programme was
formed in 1978 by NATO’s Centre Region
airforces to advance treir tactical capabilities and produce tactics, techniques
and procedures that improve multinational air operations.The main objective
is to increase the effectiveness of the air
forces in the field of tactical leadership
and conceptual and doctrinal initiatives
in support of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT)
and national missions.
Commander NRDC – GR
Lt General Ilias LEONTARIS
message:
On behalf of all our HQ’s personnel, I would like to express deep sorrow
and sincere condolences to all the families and Nations for the unfair loss of our
colleagues and I wish a speedy recovery
to the injured. It is always tragic to loose
young members of our forces in time of
peace, members that where dedicated to
their mission, professionals among the
best. We hope that God will give them
rest and to their families health and
strength to keep alive their memory.
special guests
SaCEUR General Philip M. BREEDLOVE Interview
LANDCOM Corps Commanders' Conference II/2014
(NRDC-GR HQ - THESSALONIKI, GREECE)
C ommander of Supreme Allied
Command Europe (SACEUR) General
Philip M. Breedlove was interviewed
on October 15th in the framework of
the Landcom Corps Commander’s
Conference II/2014. The SACEUR
talked about the preparations the
NATO Allies have been making to
bring about plans for a high readiness joint task force to fruition. Next,
he spoke about NATO’s past and present views and relationship with Russia, in light of the Crimea situation.
He also touched on how NATO plans
to approach the “incursions” of ISIL.
Finally, the SACEUR reaffirmed the
mission of the Alliance and its duty
to assist each of its member nationstates.
SACEUR: Before I start let me just say
thank you for being here today and also
before I start with very short prepared
statement, I would like to express our
heartfelt condolences to our host nation in the loss of three of your brave
soldiers here about a week ago. Any loss
is a bad one and we, the entire NATO
family, reaches out with our thoughts
and prayers for the soldiers and for their
families; at least two of them had families that are left behind, so thank you for
their sacrifice.
Good afternoon and thank you for attending the morning session of the Land
Component Commanders’ Conference.
Men, thanks for hosting it and staying
here to spend a few more minutes to
talk with me and others this afternoon.
I have a short statement and then most
importantly we’ll get right to your questions.
As you know, we are adapting to
changes here in Europe. This is a historic
moment for the alliance and I’m proud
to say that NATO is adapting as rapidly as
its 21st century challenges are challenging us. It has been truly heartening for
these past few weeks to see our alliance
demonstrating its commitment to the
people, while we are at the same time
stepping up to these challenges in our
rapidly changing security environment.
The members of NATO have quite tangi-
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special guests
bly shown their unity and their resolve
to provide the responsive collective defense that this new environment that we
are experiencing calls for. I’ve had excellent discussions with our commanders
over the past three days, as we discuss
and develop our military advice for our
political leaders who will decide how the
alliance moves forward in the coming
weeks, and I’m looking forward to implementing their decisions.
So with that I’m ready to take your
questions.
Question 1 – General, after the words
you made, there was a decision about a
new NATO reaction force able to deploy
within days. Is it a final decision or are
there still discussions on this issue, and
who will lead this force? Thank you very
much.
SACEUR: Thank you and you are correct, there was a decision and the decision is made to create this high readiness
joint task force - you will hear me now
call it the VJTF because that’s easier to
say - but the decision has been made and
we are now implementing that decision.
In fact, we had a wonderful conversation
here with the armies who will be providing that portion, the land portion, of the
VJTF, so we have been given a timetable
to deliver our plan and our proposal.
It’s a very short timeline to our political
masters and they will approve our final
recommendations and decisions. In the
meantime, we have a standing NRF with
an immediate response force inside of it.
From that force we are going to consti-
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tute a more high readiness portion that
would mirror our VJTF so that NATO has
this capability beginning very soon, and
we will maintain that portion of the NRF
through that time when the very high
readiness task force VJTF is in actual
standing.
Question 2 – Hello, you said before
about the relationship between NATO
and Russia, and you said about Ukraine
and Crimea and how the situation there
is, but I want to ask you if you believe
that Russia is officially involved in this
crisis because Russia itself says that it
has no involvement, that it’s just autonomous.
SACEUR: Thank you for that question,
This is a subject I like to talk about. What
we have seen for the past 10 to 12 years
is that NATO has been trying to develop
a relationship with Russia and to make
them a partner and we have made decisions about our force structure our
force locations and our budgets based
on Russia being a partner in those last
years. Of course what we’ve seen across
the last six months ago is that Russia has
not been a partner. First we saw this in
2008 with what they did in Georgia and
then we began to work with them again
to get back into a partnership relationship following the invasion and the work
they did within Georgia. Since the last
six months what we have seen is a very
sophisticated form of warfare which we
are calling hybrid warfare, and one of the
elements of this hybrid warfare is a very
sophisticated informational and propaganda campaign. And a part of that campaign is clearly that Russia has denied
that they have had involvement in either
Crimea or Eastern Ukraine, that the socalled ‘Little Green Men’ were local men.
Of course we’re very certain and we’re
absolutely sure that that is not the case.
Clearly Russia has been involved in the
Crimea, clearly Russia has been involved
in eastern Ukraine, but we do have to
deal with their information campaign
which tries to make it look otherwise.
It’s a very sophisticated campaign which
I think we can learn from quite frankly
because they have done it very very well,
the use of the media, social media, internet and other things to carry these false
narratives, and now what we need to do
is refute the false narrative.
special guests
Question 3 – Before a few days, General, there were some leaks in the German media about the situation in the
German army forces. From that I hear in
some countries we have an announcement about the decrease of the armed
forces, for example in Netherlands.
What do you believe for the future, is it
possible for NATO to continue the mission with these smaller armed forces
and smaller expenses in this area?
SACEUR: Again it’s a wonderful question, and let me go back to the answer
I had in the previous gentleman and remind that for almost 10 to 12 years we
have been treating Russia as a partner,
and as a part of that our nations all of
them have made decisions about their
defense expenditures, readiness and
other things based on Russia being a
partner. And so defense expenditures
have declined, force structure has declined and this is a known fact. What I
think you’re speaking of also is recent
revelations that we have some challenges in readiness in some of our forces. I
again think that the Wales summit was
a wonderful summit because what it did
was crystallize all of our understanding
that we have to refocus on our readiness
that we have to stop decline in defense
budgets, and we need to rethink what
our investment profile is to me the challenges. So all of those are positive results
from wales, the nations committed to
stopping the decline in defense budgets
and we committed to readiness and in
the ultimate form of the VJTF we committed to bring a portion of the force to
very high readiness. And so those are
all positive outcomes. to your big question of ‘can NATO respond?’, NATO is
still the most powerful military alliance
in the world. It has guaranteed in large
portion the peace around Europe for
the past sixty-five to seventy years. We
clearly have had some small problems,
but nation-states are nation-states. We
have kept this to an absolute minimum,
and I credit NATO for that effort across
the years and NATO will be ready for the
next challenge as well.
Question 4 – Sir, my name is Lindas
Blaberis from Parapolitika newspaper.
I would like to ask you in NATO’s outer
border there a violent Muslim threat,
but except for this we have asymmetric, an example is the illegal immigrant.
I would like to ask you, how can NATO
confront this threat, because here in our
area in Greece we have a very serious
problem, not only for the humanitarian
part but also for the security problem
because a lot of them, there are some
fanatical Muslims who return to their
country in Europe. Has NATO an answer
to this problem?
SACEUR: Again, a wonderful question
and one we have talked about quite a lot
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special guests
in NATO. Clearly the Russian threat consumes our thought in the north, but our
NATO partners in the south have a different series of challenges, we talk about
this area as MINA, the Middle East and
North Africa, and what are the challenges
from the MINA area that Russia, excuse
me, that NATO should face. And so NATO
has to respond to certain things. First and
foremost we all understand that, we call
this foreign fighter flow - the return of
radicals who have gone from our nations
to these areas, become radicalized, and
then return to our NATO nations - this
foreign fighter flow is a big problem that
we are embracing as an alliance. We are
beginning to do very exquisite sharing of
intelligence data, not only militarily but
with our ministries of interior and law
enforcement agencies to begin to bring
pressure as an alliance on the foreign
fighter flow. As to the ability to address
issues in North Africa which are the root
cause of what you are talking about in immigration, NATO is embracing and working with the African union and others to
begin to look at how to address these issues. But right now there has not been a
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formal call or formal mission for NATO to
deal individually with immigration flows.
Question 5 – General, ISIS is moving
fast and advancing their action closer
and closer to Turkey. Has NATO considered a possible deployment in Turkey
in order to support its member Turkey,
and are there any discussions on the issue and what is the threat posed to the
allies?
SACEUR: I was overhearing General
Hodges’ discussion and so part of the
answer will be the same answer that he
gave, and that is that NATO has already responded to Turkey in an amazing way and
at a very fast rate and now sustained over
two years. NATO called for, excuse me,
Turkey called for NATO to aid in their air
defense and ballistic missile defense, and
we had a rapid response of patriots from
three nations that have now been sustained over a year and will be sustained
for at least through the end of next year.
We have three nations in there delivering
tactical ballistic missile defense and now
air defense to Turkey. So already we have
responded to sour southern partner, our
southern ally, excuse me, in their request
for help in this issue. So I see this already
as a very successful story. The alliance
could not be more clear about its absolute commitment to Article 5 defense,
if our ally turkey calls for consultations
about incursions of ISIL into Turkey or the
need to defend it, NATO will respond if
ISIL crosses into Turkey, this is what we
do, we do collective defense. But most
importantly I must say that we already
have met the requests from Turkey about
air defense, and it’s a good example of
how our alliance works.
So let me just wrap up and say thank
you for your questions today, and thank
you for being here. We have had a wonderful conference already the discussion
this morning about the challenges that
we face and the way that the land component as a part of a joint team - land,
air and sea - fits into that, have been very
fruitful, and quite frankly I have taken
some really good learning and some really good task for my headquarters to
work to support our land commanders in
the future. I would just like to thank our
great hosts one more time for putting on
a splendid conference and giving us the
ability to address these really tough issues. Thank you.
Georgios THEODOROU
OR-9 (HE A)
SA1 Media Monitoring & Analysis
NRDC-GR/PAO
special guests
COM LANDCOM Interview
During His Official Visit In The
Ex. TRIDENT LANCE/GORDIAN KNOT '14
n December 4, 2015, as part of
the exercise TRIDENT LANCE/GORDIAN
KNOT 2014, NRDC-GR Public Affairs
Staff had the occasion to interview COM
LANDCOM Lt. Gen. John Nicholson (US
Army).
The interview focused on the COM
LANDCOM’s evaluation and impressions
of the NATO Alliance forces gathered at
NRDC-GR during his visit at the Main CP.
Additionally, Lt. Gen. Nicholson discussed the challenges he and his staff
faced to conduct the exercise and meet
the expectations set by the Alliance command.
Furthermore, Lt. Gen. Nicholson expressed his appreciation for all the soldiers and servicemen who contributed,
O
and continue to contribute, to the Alliance, and looked forward to overcoming
future objectives and challenges.
Question 1– Having been briefed on
our HQs participation and contribution
to the LANDCOM EVALUATION, what
are your expectations from that contribution and what is your overall impression of the level of the NRDC-GREECE’s
preparation?
My overall impression is excellent.
NRDC-GRC is very prepared for this exercise, and this exercise is extremely
important for the Alliance. It is the first
time we as an Alliance have attempted a
Major Joint Operation Plus. That means
multiple corps in the field practicing and
operation to restore the integrity, the
territorial integrity, of the Alliance.
This is the first time we have conducted such an operation since the end
of the Cold War, and as well the first
time we’ve done an Article 5 scenario,
so an extremely important exercise for
the Alliance and also for LANDCOM. It
is through this exercise we will achieve
full operation capability, the first of the
single service commands to do so since
2010 Lisbon conference. NRDC-GRC is an
integral part of this.
And the hard work and the performance that I have already seen evident
today, in briefings and visiting your CP,
reassure all of us you are ready to do
your part for Alliance and for this exercise.
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special guests
Question 2 – LANDCOM is running the
evaluation process in order to achieve
its FOC through the exercise TRLE 2014
as an LCC of a Major Joint Operation.
What are the main challenges that you
and your staff are called to face in order
to meet your level of ambition for this
exercise?
Of course the Alliance is the most
effective military Alliance, really that
the world has ever known, 28 nations.
We’ve been together for well over 60
years. We’ve literally brought freedom
to millions of people throughout Europe
and have just finished one of the longest
counter insurgency Campaigns in recent
history, 13 years in Afghanistan. This Alliance has in uniform almost 2.000.000
soldiers, so it’s an incredible effective Alliance. It built upon the history of each
of our nations, and each of our nations
have a very distinguished military history. So the challenge for us and NATO
then is how to optimize all the contributions of each nation, how to ensure that
the whole is greater than the sum of
the parts, how do we as a team achieve
8
synergy and synchronize our activities to
achieve the effects of the Alliance needs.
So what the Alliance, of course, needs
now in the face of threats from our
East and from our South is to be ready.
Number one, in the event if something
happens, and this exercise helps to contribute to our realness. Number two, we
need to demonstrate to potential threats
that we are all ready and capable of contacting major joint operations. So this
exercise, which coincidentally enables
us to achieve full operational capability,
perhaps more importantly conveys to
all potential threats that this Alliance is
ready today to fight, if necessary (and of
course we don’t want to fight, if we have
to fight), but if necessary we are ready to
fight to protect any Alliance member at
any time from threat to their territorial
integrity.
Question 3 – GOKT 14 is a clear demonstration of the commitment of Greece
to offer an instrument to NATO military
power in terms of improving the Alliance’s military capabilities. What is the
message you would deliver to NRDC-
GRC personnel on this commitment?
My first informer is a message of appreciation. I appreciate that each soldier
who was out here, primarily from Greece
as the framework nation for NRDC-GR,
but from the eight other nations sited
here as a part of NRDC-GR. We want to
thank you for your service at this time in
our history. Most of the soldiers here if
not all are volunteers. They volunteered
to serve their countries. They volunteered to serve the Alliance. And at this
time in the history of the Alliance we
need them, we all need them. So number one, appreciation to each soldier in-
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dividually, and airman and sailor, for their
participation. And then to NRDC-GR,
specifically to General Ilias LEONDARIS,
the Commander and the tremendous
team he has, I have great confidence in
their ability to accomplish the mission in
this exercise and to go on to achieve the
standards and training objectives that
they have set out for themselves.
We are looking forward to a challenging exercise, because we don’t want take
it easy on ourselves; we want to challenge ourselves, we want to practice the
hard parts of fighting a combat operation like this, and there are many difficult
parts to include, communications, as well
as our ability to operate as a coalition in
the face of significant threat.
So we want challenge ourselves: each
of us, as individuals, as sections and as
and overall team, and coming out of this
experience we are going to be even better, as an Alliance and certainly NRDC-GR
and each of the other Corps will be even
better on the far end of this exercise.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir.
You’re very welcome.
Eirini PANTZOU
OF-2 (HE A)
Legal Advisor
NRDC-GR/LEGAD
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special guests
“New wars, New Media?
Approaches and Responses to ISIS media campaign”
Dr. Nikos Panagiotou is Assistant Professor, School of Journalism and Mass
Media Communication, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristoteleio University. He has been a Chevening
Scholar of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Socrates Scholar at Universidade Fernando Pessoa (Portugal),
Scholar of the State of Luxembourg, in
University of Luxembourg, and RCAP
Scholar from APU University, Japan. His
is a peer-reviewer at St. Antony’s International Review Oxford University, b)
Multi-Disciplinary Scientific Journal of
International Black Sea University, and
c) Journal of Culture and Society and
member of the advisory board of peer
reviewers for Networking Knowledge.
He has participated in a series of scientific researches, has published articles in
International and Greek journals and in
edited volumes. His research interests
are upon: Global Journalism, Political
Communication, Mass Media Literacy,
Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
In the last years West came across with a
terrorist group, ISIS that have riveted the
world’s attention with its brutal tactics
and its propaganda mechanism. Against
this slick and fast-moving dissemination
of propaganda much of our response “involved suspending Twitter accounts or
taking down videos ISIS. In order though
to successfully respond in this media
and not only campaign, we have to understand the changes that have taken
place. The new political, economical etc
environment, were rapid and unexpected changes which make order contingent
not given, is characterized neither by
chaos nor by order but from metastability(Urry 2007), where we continuously
10
Dr. Nikos S.Panagiotou
Assistant Professor
balance between order and uncertainty.
Certainties of the past are scattered and
obscured by the dynamic of mediatization, from changes in “communication
technologies…to the point that the conduct of war cannot be understood unless
one carefully accounts for the role of
media in it” Mass media provides meaning and mediates the meaning of the action in foreign policy. Their influence is
greater in foreign policy issues because
of the lack of personal experience, and
consequently, the public’s reliance upon
the information that receives from the
mass media in general” . As a result a
battle of symbols and representations is
taking place on the same time with the
real war, it is the battle of perceptions,
that all sides has to fight and win. Media
are becoming part of the practices of the
warfare. The conduct of war cannot be
understood unless one carefully accounts
for the role of media in it. Changes in the
nature of coverage results also to changes in audiences, from the perception of
a unified audience were we are moving
to fragmented audience. Both changes
calls for a ‘revision’ in the way that we approach the role of media(traditional and
new) in the new battlefields.
In the evolution of modern jihadist propaganda, we could categorise as Shane
and Hubbardaug (2014) suggest in jihad
1.0,Bin Laden, addressing a single static
camera with videos that had to be smuggled to Al Jazeera or another television
special guests
network to be aired. The most prominent figure of the second generation was
the YouTube star Anwar al-Awlaki, “who
addressed Westerners in colloquial English, had a blog and Facebook page and
helped produce a full-color, English-language magazine called Inspire. ISIS is online jihad 3.0. Dozens of Twitter accounts
spread its message, and it has posted
some major speeches in seven languages. Its videos borrow from Madison Avenue and Hollywood, from combat video
games and cable television dramas, and
its sensational dispatches are echoed and
amplified on social media. When the accounts of ISIS are blocked, new ones appear immediately. Services like JustPaste,
to publish battle summaries, SoundCloud
to release audio reports, Instagram to
share images and WhatsApp to spread
graphics and videos, are used” ISIS has
developed apps which the first one went
into wide use in April 2014, but its posting
activity has ramped up during the group’s
offensive in Mosul, reaching an all-time
high of almost 40,000 tweets in one day.
In addition…hundreds of Dawn app users began sending thousands of tweets,
“We are coming, Baghdad” .The volume
of these tweets was enough to make any
search for “Baghdad” on Twitter generate
the image among its first results, which
is certainly one means of intimidating the
city’s residents.”
The apps is just one way ISIS games Twitter to magnify its message. “Another is
the use of organized hashtag campaigns.
This approach also skews the results of a
popular Arabic Twitter account called @
ActiveHashtags that tweets each day’s top
trending tags. When ISIS gets its hashtag
into the @ActiveHashtags stream, it results in an average of 72 retweets per
tweet, which only makes the hashtag
trend more. As it gains traction, more users are exposed to ISIS’s messaging. The
group’s supporters also run accounts similar to @ActiveHashtags that exclusively
feature jihadi content and can produce
hundreds of retweets per tweet” . In data
that Berberg analyzed in February, 2014
ISIS often registered more than 10,000
mentions of its hashtag per day.
All these statistics underline a major difference from the past. The difference
now is that ISIS no longer depends on intermediaries to broadcast its barbarism.
In this new environment, the group’s media arm can upload its propaganda and
see it spread globally in a matter of minutes or hours. Instead of trying to attract
traditional media attention ISIS created
content that traditional media could not
ignore, thus becoming another channel
to promote their message. In this way
they manage to by pass effort to counter ISIS online presence by shutting down
accounts. But what’s often overlooked
in press coverage is that ISIS doesn’t just
have strong, organic support online. It
also employs social-media strategies that
inflate and control its message.
New Media has been proven to be a powerful medium directed both to an “external” and “internal” audience, to the rest
of the World and to Middle East. The images of ISIS in Syria that circulated in the
West documented the group’s brutality.
But to a local audience it was showing
both piles of corpses and pictures of administrative services in the areas under
its control that were meant to show its
ability to govern.
We have to have in mind though another
very important aspect, according to my
opinion. An important use/exploitation
of new media from ISIS is that are used as
channels for communication and spreading its message especially in the younger
audience in West. The “weakness” of ISIS
for direct strikes in the West is bypassed
through the use of new media. These
channels are used with the aim to recruit
and radicalize new supporters especially
in the West, that in turn are used to conduct terrorist attacks (lone wolf) or more
organize ones as it happened recently in
France.
This strategy that developed over the
years has evolved into a sophisticated
campaign which is at the center of the
world’s attention, underlines the necessity to move beyond measures of just
shutting down these accounts and apps.
The response as I argue is the production
and dissemination of strategic narratives,
which at the time being we lack. We have
to produce a strategic narrative for two
audiences, for our internal audience,
which ISIS is looking to exploit, and the
external audience, which are the Muslim
populations in Middle East. These strategic narratives through the use of new and
traditional media are decisive in our aim
to combat terrorism. Producing and disseminating our strategic narrative should
be at the center of our effort and it will
make the change rather than placing emphasis just on technological elements
1
Dr. Nikos Panagiotou is Assistant
Professor, School of Journalism and Mass
Media Communication, Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences, Aristoteleio
University.E-Mail: [email protected].
gr, [email protected]
2
Andrew Hoskins & Ben o’ Loughlin
“War and the Media: The emergence of a
diffused war”, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2010,
p.4
3
Panagiotou N. (2006) “The role of the
Greek press in Greek-Turkish rapprochement:The coverage of the “Annan Plan” for
Cyprus settlement.”European Studies Center,
University of Oxford, Ramses Working
Papers Series, p.12
4
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/
world/middleeast/isis-displaying-a-deftcommand-of-varied-media.html?emc=edit_th_20140831&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=56096603&_r=0
5
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social-media-strategy/372856/
6
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-iraq-twitter-social-media-strategy/372856/
11
articles
New DCOS OPS in NRDC – GR
On August 28th, 2014, a short ceremony took place in NRDC-GR HQ, to say
farewell to DCOS Brigadier General JAIME INIGUEZ and welcome his successor
Brigadier General SANCHEZ TAPIA, Salvador, assigned following the
decision by the Spanish Supreme Military Council.
Brigadier General SANCHEZ TAPIA, Salvador has
been serving ESP Army War
College as Chief Training
and Doctrine Section for the
past two years. Moreover,
the Brigadier General is
decorated with a profound
knowledge on NATO, as well
as NATO CIMIC international
issues, and has a Masters on
Strategic Studies in the USAWC.
12
During the HO/TO ceremony our
Deputy Commander Lieutenant General
Plamen LILOV, inducted the new DCOS
OPS and wished him success in his new
duties, expressing to the outgoing DCOS
OPS Brigadier General JAIME INIGUEZ his
best wishes for health, personal and family happiness as well as good luck in his
new assignment.
In his farewell speech, Brigadier General JAIME INIGUEZ,
thanked all the Commanders
and all NRDC-GR personnel for
their support in accomplishing
his duties and promoting and
fulfilling the mission of our HQ,
wishing everybody a healthy
and prosperous life.
NRDC-GR COM Lieutenant
General IIias LEONTARIS welcomed the attendees, highlighted the role of Targeting
and expressed his intent to
host more such important activities to NRDC-GR premises.
articles
“JTS-FAST User’s Group”
SHAPE concluded its first semester’s 2014 JTS-FAST User’s
Group meeting in Greece between 3-5 June. The meeting was
hosted by NRDC-GR in the facilities of the War Museum of Thessaloniki .
23 attendees from almost all NATO entities attended the
User Group. The main focus of the meeting was the current
status quo as well as the future development of JTS/FAST and
future Joint Targeting Systems.
During this meeting there was an opportunity to hear and
discuss the recent JTS/FAST experiences from exercises STEADFAST JAZZ 13 and TRIDENT JAGUAR 14 as well as to exchange
views and ideas with NCIA service providers.
13
articles
RSC WORKSHOP
“RSC TRANSFORMATION TO JLSG”
Last presentation of
the Workshop was from
NRDC-T, which mentioned
issues about the manning
and the training.
During the Workshop
all the participants had
the opportunity to discuss
about the topics of each
presentation, so they end
in useful conclusions.
Finally COS NRDC-GR
thanked again the external participants for their
knowledge and information that shared with the
HQ SO’s.
NRDC-GR/REAR SUPPORT COMMAND
(RSC) carried out the RSC Workshop “RSC
Transformation to JLSG” on 18 of November 2014.
Apart to the HQ staff personnel. External participants experts from NRDCIT, EUROCORPS, NRDC-T and MNC-NE
joined the Workshop.
The purpose of the Workshop was
the transformation of RSC to Joint Logistic Support Group (JLSG). RSC Workshop
was carried out delivering presentations
and informed the audience about the
course of action, adopted by NFS HQ’s to
transform RSC to JLSG and the major difficulties that were faced during this effort.
Major General Dimitrios KALOGEROPOULOS NRDC-GR Chief Of Staff (COS)
welcomed all the external participants
to NRDC-GR. He mentioned that our
goal for this period is to fulfil a CREVAL
requirement. He said that the experience
of the external participants is very useful
for us. After the finish of CREVAL we have
to follow the procedures to transform to
JLSG.
After the opening remarks the presentations took place with the discussion
among them.
The first presentation of all provid-
14
ed by NRDC-GR/G5, was ΄΄JTF WG Initial Briefing΄΄ giving a general overview.
The second was ΄΄RSC Transformation to
JLSG΄΄, summarizing all issues and focusing on JLSG.
After that we had the presentations
from the external participants. EUROCORPS representative presented ΄΄EUROCORPS way to JLSG΄΄.
Then NRDC-IT delivered the presentation΄΄NRDC-IT Provision to JLSG΄΄. NRDCIT has achieved a valuable experience
practicing JLSG in 2013 and now it is in
a stand-by period to deploy its JLSG with
NATO Response Force (NRF).
articles
NRDC-GREECE EXERCISE
GORDIAN BONUS II/2014 (GOBS II/14)
During a 5 day Exercise GORDIAN BONUS II/2014 (Battle Staff Training) between Monday 20 and Friday
24 October 2014 was conducted at
PEDION AREOS CAMP in THESSALONIKI. This was the second set of a series
of exercises programmed to enhance
NRDC-GR HQ preparations for exercise ‘’GORDIAN KNOT’’ 14 (GOKT 14).
As such it built upon the previous Exercise ‘’GORDIAN BONUS’’ I/14 (BST
I/14).
The aim of this exercise was to
finalize integration of newcomers
and reinforcements, operationalize
the knowledge of the C2 concept
and specially of selected Multi-Disciplinary Groups, practice SOPs and
prepare for TRIDENT LANCE/ GORDIAN KNOT 14 (TRLE/GOKT 14) specific
tactical situations.
The whole training was effective,
realistic and deeply productive to
the final outcome of the exercise,
and it prepared the personnel to better consolidate and familiarize with
NATO procedures.
In his closing remarks during the
After Action Review of GOBS II/2014,
Commander of NRDC-GREECE Lt Gen
‘’Leontaris Ilias congratulated all the
HQ personnel for the success of this
exercise and stated:
‘This kind of HQ is a tool and a pool
for all contributing nations. Training is
a first mission and exercises are the
platforms to get experienced and
ready personnel to perform its duty
in any future NATO mission’’.
15
articles
NRDC-GREECE EXERCISE
GORDIAN BONUS III 2014 (GOBS III/14)
exercise GORDIAN BONUS III/2014
(GOBS III/14), the third Battle Staff
Training (BST III) scheduled for 2014 in
the framework of Foundation Training
for Exercise TRIDENT LANCE/GORDIAN
KNOT 14 (TRLE/GOKT14), was conducted by NATO Rapid Deployable Corps –
Greece (NRDC-GREECE) from 10 Nov
2014 in three phases:
Initiation, entity training and after
action review (AAR). The aim of GOBS
III/14 was to train NRDC-GREECE staff,
in the framework of Corps tactical activities related to TRLE/GOKT14 Article
5 high intensity situation.
During GOBS III/14 NRDC-GEECE
was deployed in full Crisis Establishment (CE), forming three Command
Posts (CPs) in three different training
areas (“PROKOPIDI”, “LEVANTI” AND
“PEDION AREOS” Camps). Approximately 1000 personnel participated in
this training event from GRC and Allied
Affiliated Units and NRDC-GREECE integral and Organic Units for the needs of
the Exercise.
Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS,
Commander of NRDC-GREECE, exploited this activity in the most productive
manner in order to prepare the upcoming high intensity exercise TRLE/GOKT
14.
16
articles
“PROCUREMENT OF
SAGE FINANCIAL SOFTWARE’’
within the framework of its effort
to keep up with the pace of current
conditions in finance and accounting,
and according to International Public
Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS),
NRDC-GR/G8 took the initiative to
implement SAGE 300 ERP system.
Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) is business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of
integrated applications in
order to automate all back
office functions related to
technology, services and
human resources. ERP
software integrates all
facets of an operation,
including product planning,
development,
manufacturing,
sales
and marketing (scheme
1).
ERP provides an integrated view of core business processes in real-time, using common
databases maintained by a database
management system. ERP systems
track business resources - cash, raw
materials, production capacity - and
the status of business commitments:
orders, purchase orders and payroll.
SAGE 300 ERP is a fast and integrated accounting and financial management software that reduces costs
and boosts productivity. It provides
powerful, flexible tools that improve
financial reporting and compliance
as well as business intelligence for a
greater Internal Review. This ERP has
the ability to help every section of G8
Branch to fulfill its mission, as well
as to connect information inserted
by different users and create the fis-
cal year financial statements. Other
than these advantages SAGE 300 ERP
System was selected among other
systems because it has been already
tested and positively evaluated by
the other GRF(L) HQs that use it for
several years.
Therefore, G8’s project manager
Lt (HE A) Dimitrios MELETIS, under
the guidance of ACOS G8 Col (HE A)
Georgios RATSIKAS, has contacted
Accord Consulting Lt. (SAGE provider)
and preliminary negotiations were realized during spring 2014. SAGE 300
ERP was customized on September
2014 and finally it was implemented
to NRDC-GR on October 2014.
A training course took place from
4 to 7 November 2014 in NRDC-GR‘s
facilities, when G8’s personnel had
the chance to practice all the procedures of the system and ensure its
functionality and its efficiency. The
lecturer, Mr. Miguel Cruise, applied a
hands-on approach, was highly qualified and experienced and helped the
BUDFIN staff acquire the latest skills
and knowledge, resulting in enhanced
user confidence and productivity.
Consequently, G8 personnel are now
certified users of SAGE 300 ERP, ready
to cope with the challenges of the
financial section.
In conclusion, the implementation of SAGE
ERP by G8 highlights
the effort of the G8
personnel to improve the status
procedures and systems in the financial section of our
HQ and to consort
with the International
Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
These facts indirectly benefit all Branches of NRDC-GR
HQ because the faster we process
all the trades the better we can all
correspond to our mission.
Grigoria VASILEIOU
OF-1 (HE A)
Internal Review Officer
NRDC-GR/G8
17
articles
Cyber Awareness
Cyberspace is an increasingly attractive venue of aggression these
days. When in cyberspace, a person’s
real identity is now ever easier to be
obfuscated and maybe that is the reason why digital domain is the main
avenue used for malicious activity.
From simple curiosity with man-inthe-middle attacks run by “script-kiddies” who just want to test their
skills to attacks run by organized and
well-funded groups that result in Denialof-Service or theft of critical Personal Identifiable Information, cyberspace is now considered the fourth
dimension of war. But unlike land, sea
and air, much of cyberspace’s doctrine remains undefined.
One prominent definition comes
from the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber
Warfare. It calls a cyber-attack «a
cyber-operation that is reasonably
expected to cause injury or death to
persons or damage or destruction to
objects». This definition though is far
too simplistic to cover all the possible
actions that could be offensive using this domain and that is the main
reason that the definition threshold
should be lowered.
18
Cybersecurity is a relatively new
discipline. Many people believe cybersecurity is something you can buy.
Others believe cybersecurity just refers to technical measures, such as
using password protection or installing a firewall to protect a network.
Still, others believe it is an administrative and technical program solely
in the realm of IT professionals Cybersecurity should be better viewed
as a holistic set of activities that are
focused on protecting an organization’s vital information. It includes
the technologies employed to protect
information. It includes the processes
used to create, manage, share, and
store information. Effective cybersecurity preserves the confidentiality,
integrity and availability of information, protecting it from attack by bad
actors, damage of any kind, and unauthorized access by those who do
not have a “need-to-know”.
For an attack to be successful at a
high level against big organizations or
even nations, a more organized way
of attack is needed, usually well-funded, well-motivated and combined
with prior intelligence efforts. The
broad spectrum of cyber-attack could
include intrusion, surveillance, recording of data, espionage, extraction
of data, theft of intellectual property, manipulation of data, control of
devices and systems, kinetic effect
through control of devices, destruction of devices and property, destruction of critical infrastructure and operations with national impact.
Cyberspace is more attractive for
fraudulent activity because it affords
articles
opportunities to affect nonviolent
but impactful consequences. With a
researchers’ prediction in mind that
26 billion to 100 billion devices will
be connected to the “Internet of the
Things” by 2020, everyone can imagine that cyber space remains vulnerable to hackers, hacktivists, spies
and advanced persistent threats. Any
device that is somehow connected to something else is part of the
“Internet of the Things” and part of
cyberspace, from personal fitness
wristband trackers to massive critical
infrastructure systems that control
power grids, bridges and railways.
And all these could, easily or not, be
under attack.
In such an environment, it is critical for all of us to have a minimum understanding of what might be safe or
unsafe when we somehow connect
to cyberspace through obtaining a
minimum level of security awareness.
Industry solutions offer a wide range
of tools that might be used for implementing proper controls to safeguard
users and assets but, as it is said, the
weakest link to security chain is always the simple user and his actions,
either one user works on his compa-
ny’s assets or he just surfs in the internet from his personal smartphone.
And for that specific reason, hackers
are turning to social media to target their next subject. Workers with
privileged access to networks, pose
the most widely exploited weaknesses in relation to most of the attacks
we hear today. They have taken to
social media venues to look for employees who tag themselves as being
in supervisory positions or as system
administrators, and they just start a
campaign to capture his credentials,
because they know that holding this,
might give them entrance to the castle from the inside.
With that in mind, when connected to something, it is important to
think twice what we are doing at that
moment, what we make available
in public through internet and what
dangers we might face when doing
so. Industry, academics, security personnel are constantly working on this
field to provide us safe tools for using
them in a safe environment, but it is
up to our own actions and decisions
to enjoy that safety. The important
thing is not to become a cybersecurity expert, but become Cyber-aware.
Georgios KARAPILAFIS
OF-2 (HE-A)
Security Officer
NRDC-GR/CIS
19
articles
Legal Aspects in
Collective Defence Operations.
Operating in NATO territory under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.
they might constitute a
threat to international
peace and security.”
Introduction:
The prohibition of the use of force
under the UN system
After the end of the World War II,
the United Nations (“U.N”) was created in order to prevent any possible
future wars that can be much more
damaging than the first two wars
humanity had witnessed. States are
prohibited from committing any act
of aggression against other states. If
any States are about to face an armed
attack and equivalent threats, they
must approach the United Nations
Security Council (“U.N.S.C”), which
then has to deal with the situation.
Such a State may use armed force, if
necessary, in its defence, pending action by the U.N.S.C.
Article 2(4) of the United Nations
Charter (“U.N Charter”) forbids the
use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence
of any States. Accordingly, civil wars
which are seen as essentially domestic matters do not fall under this
articles scope, “except in so far as
20
However, the U.N Charter recognizes two exceptions to this general
prohibition. They are:
First, under Article 51,
which is the individual or collective right to
self-defence against an
armed attack by other
sovereign States. The
article provides that
“Nothing in the present Charter shall
impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an
armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations”. Second,
under the provisions of Chapter VII
of the UN Treaty, the use of force is
legitimate when the Security Council
has directed or authorized the use of
force to maintain or restore international peace and security.
I. The concept of Collective defence
The principle of collective defence is
at the very heart of NATO’s founding
treaty. It remains a unique principle that binds its members together, committing them to protect each
other and setting a spirit of solidarity
within the Alliance.
This principle is depicted in Article 5
of the North Atlantic Treaty. It provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim
of an armed attack, each and every
other member of the Alliance will
consider this act of violence as an
armed attack against all members
and will take the actions it deems
necessary to assist the Ally attacked.
NATO invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty for the first time in its
history following the 9/11 terrorist
attacks against the United States.
II. The State’s right to self-defence
Based on the above, it therefore follows that there are three important
criteria that must be strictly observed
before the exercise of the State’s right
to self-defence to be legitimate under
the international law: (1) the existence of armed attack; (2) the principle of necessity; and (3) the principle
of proportionality. By referring to all
these criteria, it can be concluded
that an exercise of self-defence will
be justified only when an inter-state
armed attack occurs (as opposed to
internal armed conflict such as the
civil wars, the principle of territoriality), then that there is no other alternatives that can be used to achieve
the same result other than by using
the force (observing the condition of
necessity), and then that the force inflicted during the self-defence is not
greater than the target it seeks to
achieve (not excessive and must be
proportionate).
III. Legal issues in operations
During an Operation under Article 5
of the NATO treaty, inside NATO territory, the military commander is confronted with an increasing number
of legal issues that can impact on the
successful completion of the military
mission.
articles
1. The Legal basis for Operations under Art 5 of the Washington Treaty
NATO operations will always be based
on a mandate of International Law.
Normally the mandate is derived
from a UN Security Council Resolution and/or a NAC decision. Analyzing
the legal issues that may occur when
operating in NATO territory under Art
5 of its’ treaty, the predominant question is the legal basis for
the operation and the use
of force in the territory of
another sovereign state. In
that case the legal framework of the operation
would be the consent of
the attacked state and the
subsequent authorization
for the use of force which
will take the form of a NAC
Decision. The need for a
UNSC Resolution even in
the case of collective defence is a conflicting legal
issue with opposing views
between academics and
IOs and would not be further analyzed.
Great importance also
should be given to the categorisation of the conflict,
whether it is an international or not
international armed conflict also to
the applicability of LOAC or not. The
applicability of international law or
national legislation is a core issue
for the successful planning and conducting of the operation and it is a
legal issue that should be identified
in advance since it affects the overall
planning of the operation. Moreover,
political and legal constrains set out
in the NAC Decision should be reflected in the OPLAN since NAC decision
is the legal basis of the operation setting out it’s limits (i.e do not cross international borders).
Consequently the NAC decision may
limit the scope of the operation. In-
ternational law provides limitations
and possibilities for operations as
a whole, as well as for individuals.
They include restrictions of the use of
force in international relations, neutrality, use of weapons, targeting, war
crimes, self-defense, non-combatants, immunity and environmental
limitations. The conduct of military
operations is controlled by international customary and convention-
al law and the domestic law of the
participating nations. Within this
framework, it is for NATO to set out
the parameters within which military
forces can operate. International law
regulates the use of force during military operations, while National law
and policy may further regulate the
use of force in certain operations or
situations.
Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC – International Humanitarian Law, IHL)
is the body of international law that
governs the conduct of hostilities
during an armed conflict, including
belligerent occupation. According to
NATO policy, the principles of LOAC
shall always apply for military oper-
ations, irrespective of there being an
armed conflict according to the definition in the Geneva Conventions and
Additional Protocols (or equivalent
customary international humanitarian law).
2. The need for Rules of Engagement
in the war fighting scenario
As it is well known ROE are directives
to military forces (including individ-
uals) that define the circumstances, conditions, degree, and manner
in which force by NATO troops will
be used. ROE are not used to assign
tasks or give tactical instructions.
With the exception of self-defence,
during operations ROEs provide the
sole authority to NATO/NATO-led
forces to use force. A common misunderstanding is that in war fighting
scenario there is no room for ROEs.
The truth is that after the commencement of an armed conflict ROE generally limit the otherwise lawful use
of force. As a result ROE appendix in
the OPLAN should be properly staffed
and approved.
21
articles
3. The legal status of the personnel
in Article 5 Operations
Regarding the legal status of the personnel when NATO forces operate
under Article 5 of NATO Treaty there
is no need for a special Status of Forces Agreement to be concluded since
the NATO/PfP SOFA applies and is the
essential legal document which provides guidance on complex legal issues that will arise during operations.
A SOFA deals with the legal status of
the NATO forces and typically contains provisions concerning criminal
jurisdiction, immunity, claims, and
other matters.
4. Conclusion of a Host Nation Support Agreement
In most operations multinational
forces will be dependent on arrangements with local authorities or with
other TCN in order to sustain its presence over time in a theatre of operations. This requires legal arrangements between the parties involved
covering the logistic and financial
support to field operations. In addition, the TCN as well as NATO itself
will require the purchasing of goods
and service inside or outside the JOA.
To that extend a Host Nation Support
Agreement should be signed with the
receiving State IOT provide the NATO
Commander and the TCNs with support in the form of materiel, facilities
and services, including area security
and administrative support, in accordance with negotiated arrangements
between the TCNs and/or NATO and
the HN government.
5. Prisoners of War and Detention :
legal considerations in NATO Art 5
Ops
When operate under Art 5 of NATO
Treaty during Ops amounting to International Armed Conflict the handling of Prisoners of War is regulated
by Geneva Conventions. Additionally,
NATO forces may empowered under
22
the Host Nation Law to participate
in arrest of criminal suspects or may
involved in the arrest of persons indicted for war crimes. The provisions
for the handling of detainees will vary
according to national laws and is subject to a special agreement with the
HN IOT regulate the handover of captured persons during operations.
6. Legal considerations in operations
under Art 5 of the Washington
Treaty
Before I move forward I would like to
stress out the major legal issues to be
confronted when NATO forces are operating in NATO territory under Art 5
of the Washington Treaty, which are:
• Determine the legal basis for the
operation.
• Identify law applicable to the operation.
• The applicability of NATO Status of
Forces Agreements.
• Consider whether any agreements
need to be concluded (Memorandums of Understanding, Technical
Arrangements, etc)
• Review Operations Plan for legal
aspects.
• Review LOAC and Rules of Engagement (ROE).
• Check who counts as a combatant
on the enemy’s side (i.e. status of
combatant to non state actors, cyber terrorists etc)
• Check plans for POW
• Criminal Jurisdiction (NATO/SOFA).
Arrangements for war crimes investigations.
• Check provisions made to deal with
population movement – internally
displaced persons, refugees
• Consider transitional justice and
human rights issues.
• Consider the existence of a Claims
policy (NATO SOFA applies in NATO
territory)
• Environmental law considerations
• Interaction with the International
Committee of the Red Cross and
other IOs and NGOs
CONCLUSION – TAKE AWAY
Legal considerations play a key
role in the decision making process and during the conduct
of an operation. Legal review
during all levels of planning and
execution of missions is of great
importance. This review should
take account of domestic laws,
international laws (to include
the law of armed conflict), treaty
provisions, political agreements,
and the rule of engagement for
any foreseeable contingency.
The legal considerations will
have to be done in advance,
evaluating possible consequences, to include legal limitations
on the one hand but also outlining possibilities offered under
the current legal setting. A clear
understanding of the legal basis
of an operation is required at all
levels of the participating forces
and in the participating Nations.
It is also important to understand
the differences between Nations
in terms of how applicable international law and sending state
regulations may affect the conduct of operations involving contributions from more than one
Nation.
Vasileios KARATZIAS
OF-3 (HE-J)
Senior Legal Advisor
NRDC-GR/LEGAD
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Antikythera Mechanism
Antikythera mechanism ancient Greek mechanical device used
to calculate and display information
about astronomical phenomena.
The remains of this ancient “computer,” now on display in the National
Archaeological Museum in Athens,
were recovered in 1901 from the
wreck of a trading ship that sank in
the first half of the 1st century BCE,
near the island of Antikythera in the
Mediterranean Sea.
Its manufacture is currently dated
to 100 BCE, give or take 30 years.
The Antikythera mechanism has
the first known set of scientific dials
or scales, and its importance was recognized when radiographic images
showed that the remaining fragments
contain 30 gear wheels.
The Antikythera mechanism has
the first known set of scientific dials
or scales, and its importance was recognized when radiographic images
showed that the remaining fragments
contain 30 gear wheels.
No other geared mechanism of
such complexity is known from the
ancient world, or indeed until medieval cathedral clocks were built a millennium later.
It is believed that a hand-turned
shaft (now lost) was connected by a
crown gear to the main gear wheel,
which drove the further gear trains,
with each revolution of the main
gear wheel corresponding to one solar year. On the front of the mechanism is a large dial with pointers for
showing the position of the Sun and
the Moon in the zodiac and a half-silvered ball for displaying lunar phases.
The drive train for the lunar position
is extremely sophisticated, involving
epicyclic gearing and a slot-and-pin
mechanism to mimic subtle variations (known as the “first anomaly”)
in the Moon’s motion across the sky.
(See Hipparchus and Ptolemaic system.)
Two large dials are on the back of
the mechanism. The large upper dial
has a five-turn spiral slot with a moving pointer to show the 235 lunations,
or synodic months, in the Metonic
cycle. This cycle is almost exactly 19
years long and is usful in regulating
calendars. A subsidiary four-year dial
showed when the various Panhellenic games should take place, including
the ancient Olympic Games.
The large lower dial has a four-turn
spiral with symbols to show months
in which there was a likelihood of a
solar or lunar eclipse, based on the
18.2-year saros eclipse cycle. These
astronomical cycles would have been
known to the Greeks from Babylonian sources. The inscriptions imply
that there may originally have been
a display of planetary positions, most
likely on the front face, but nearly all
the relevant parts are missing.
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parent approaches) with the Sun.
tonic cycle, in chronology, a period of 19
years in which there are 235 lunations,
or synodic months, after which the
Moon’s phases recur on the same days
of the solar year, or year of the seasons.
The cycle was discovered by Meton (fl.
432 BC), an Athenian astronomer.
Referencies
synodic period, the time required for a
body within the solar system, such as a
planet, the Moon, or an artificial Earth
satellite, to return to the same or approximately the same position relative
to the Sun as seen by an observer on
the Earth. The Moon’s synodic period
is the time between successive recurrences of the same phase; e.g., be-
tween full moon and full moon. The
synodic period of a planet is the time
required for the Earth to overtake it as
both go around the Sun—or, in the case
of fast-moving Mercury or Venus, for
the planet in question to overtake the
Earth. The synodic period of an artificial satellite of the Earth is measured
between its conjunctions (closest ap-
archimedes, (born c. 290–280 BCE,
Syracuse, Sicily [now in Italy]—died
212/211BCE, Syracuse), the most famous mathematician and inventor of
ancient Greece. Archimedes is especially important for his discovery of the
relation between thesurface and volume of a sphere and its circumscribing
cyclinder. He is known for his formulation of a hydrostatic principle (known
as Archimedes’ principle) and a device
for raising water, still used in developing countries, known as the Archimedes
screw.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, English byname
Tully (born 106 BCE, Arpinum, Latium
[now Arpino, Italy]—died Dec. 7, 43
BCE, Formiae, Latium [now Formia]),
Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and
writer who vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars
that destroyed the Roman Republic. His
writings include books ofrhetoric, orations, philosophical and political treatises, and letters. He is remembered in
modern times as the greatest Roman
orator and innovator of what became
known as Ciceronian rhetoric.
ILias PANOPOULOS
OF-2 (HE-A)
AIDE DE CAMP
NRDC-GR/COM OFFICE
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Exercise “GORDIAN KNOT - 14”
General
Exercise Objectives
The exercise GORDIAN KNOT 2014
(GOKT-14) was the main activity for
NRDC-GREECE for the year 2014,
with the aim to test the HQ’s ability
to coordinate and execute a unique
NATO-led Article 5 Collective Defense
Major Joint plus Operation (MJO+)
in a multinational environment with
the participation of personnel from
13 Nations from other NATO Headquarters. Nested into exercise TRIDENT LANCE 14 (TRLE 14) of NATO’s
Allied Land Command (LANDCOM)
that is LANDCOM FOC (Final Operation Capability), GOKT-14 was a
unique training opportunity not only
for NRDC-GREECE but also for headquarters from the NATO Command
Structure and NATO Force Structure
(NFS), since an operation of that scale
involves all the Alliance.
• To train and practice the coordination of planning and preparation
between tactical and operational
level HQ from activation to employment as Follow on Forces.
• To validate NRDC-GR recently revised C2 and subsequent concepts.
• To maintain the level of training of
HQ NRDC-GR personnel, through
practicing the planning and military decision making process in
high intensity scenario.
• To train and practice Corps tactical
command and control over subordinate units in high intensity scenario.
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pability to be deployed, to command
subordinate units and conduct operations as a High Readiness Corps.
Scenario
• To plan and practice CIS deployment
and management procedures in
a comprehensive Future Mission
Network environment.
• To plan and conduct NRDC-GR CPs
full deployment, installation and
sustainment on temporary infrastructure in austere conditions, in
timelines commensurate with HRF
requirements.
Participation
More than 1300 military personnel
from 13 NATO countries, worked together, exercising and supporting
NRDC-GREECE in a fully deployed environment. They built upon past progress towards the maintenance and
further reinforcement of our HQ’s ca-
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Strategic Setting:
The setting is in SKOLKAN region and
includes the critical maritime artery
from North Atlantic to and from Baltic Sea. The scenario focus on three
countries, Bothnia,Torrike and Estonia.
Political Factor:
BDR has attempted to demonstrate
sovereign association with the area
by increasing its presence in the region, ignoring the current national
and international boundaries and
exercising what it perceives as its historical rights to The Islands through
territorial violations, primarily air and
maritime incursions.
EST defence relies on NATO and other allies’ early intervention to provide
real deterrence against an aggressor.
Its intent is to maintain the territorial
integrity and security within EST. Defence League units will guard critical
infrastructure, power supplies, etc.,
within their regions of responsibility.
The EDF will defend Estonia from BDR
aggression initially with own forces
and later in cooperation with Allied
Forces IOT preserve the sovereignty
and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia.
Major Actors
Estonia (EST)
EST defence relies on NATO and other allies’ early intervention to provide
real deterrence against an aggressor.
Its intent is to maintain the territorial
integrity and security within EST. Defence League units will guard critical
infrastructure, power supplies, etc.,
within their regions of responsibility.
The EDF will defend Estonia from BDR
aggression initially with own forces
and later in cooperation with Allied
Forces IOT preserve the sovereignty
and territorial integrity of the Republic of Estonia.
Bothnia (BDR)
To preserve its regime and the viability of its economy by distracting the
attention of the BDR population from
immediate economic challenges and
acting to secure its future economy
and regional influence.
Torrike (TOR)
TOR aim. To re-establish itself as a political and economic regional power
and to exclude/control external influ-
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ence (UN, EU, NATO) in the Baltic Sea
Region. TOR seeks to re-establish the
Skolkan Empire (The Great Skolkan)
and to assume a leadership role once
it does.
NRDC-GR MISSION IN
OPERATION “GORDIAN SPEAR”
On order, NRDC GR would rapidly deploy to the designated PODs, move
to the TAA, conduct passage of lines
and offensive operations against BDR
forces in its AOO in order to defeat
them, restore territorial integrity of
EST, ensure the security of TALLINN
and establish SASE, setting the conditions for transition to EST Armed
Forces.
each and every one of us for training and further improvement of our
skills and capabilities. NRDC-GREECE
has a clear multinational posture and
mindset and uses these exercises as
a vehicle to promote and sustain our
common interests and the Alliance’s
commitments to the collective defense principles.”
On Wednesday 3rd of December Commander of LAND Command (LANDCOM) Lt. General John NICHOLSON,
visited Main and Rear/Alt Command
Post exercise areas, at “PROKOPIDI”
and “LEVANTI” Camp accompanied
by Lt General Ilias LEONTARIS, where
he had the chance to see up close the
HQ personnel and installations at full
deployment.
Execution
The exercise started on Sunday 30th
of November. Lt. General Ilias LEONTARIS, Commander of NRDC-GREECE
stated in his welcome remarks to
the personnel: “Exercise GOKT 14
and its intensive battle rhythm present challenges and opportunities to
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The exercise placed the HQ in a challenging scenario, forcing the whole
team to tackle the kind of issues featured in news headlines around the
world. In order to find solutions in
a rigorous and complex operational environment new system capabilities and strategies were pushed.
LANDOM provided a comprehensive
wrap-around scenario to fully challenge HQ and its subordinate formations.
On Thursday 11th and Friday 12th
of December, Chief of Hellenic Army
General Staff paid a visit to NRDCGREECE, during which he had the
chance to visit close both the Main
and Rear/Alt CP exercise areas and
talk to the deployed personnel as
well as to view the facilities, in order
to derive a full image of the HQ capabilities.
On the Distinguished Visitor’s Day the
Commander accepted the National
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evaluation report that was handed to
the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff with the declaration of “Combat Ready” for NRDC-GREECE, which
reconfirmed the achievement of the
status of a High Readiness Forces
Headquarters.
Overall Appraisal
In an official visit to the exercise areas
on 3rd of December Commander of
LANDCOM Lt. General John NICHOLSON during his visit stated in an interview that: “My overall impression is
excellent, NRDC-GRC is very prepared
for this exercise” and “I appreciate
each soldier who is out here, primarily from Greece as a Framework Nation
for NRDC-GREECE but also from the
other Nations that are here as participants of NRDC-GREECE”. Talking for
the HQ’s personnel he added “I have
great confidence in their ability to accomplish their mission in this exercise
and to go on to achieve the standards
and the training objectives that they
have set out for themselves”.
The GORDIAN KNOT 14 has been a
great success. It was an important
step for the way ahead of NRDCGREECE towards the allied goal of
“NATO FORCES 2020”.
Elias NIKEZIS
OF-3 (HE-A)
SO2 Media OPS
NRDC-GR/PAO
seminars - conferences
NRDC-GR Hosted The II/2014
LANDCOM Corps Commanders’ Conference
NATO
Rapid Deployable Corps
Greece (NRDC-GR) hosted, on October 14th to 16th, the second 2014
Land Command (LANDCOM) Corps
Commanders’ Conference in Thessaloniki Greece, organized by LANDCOM and chaired by its Commander
Lt. General Ben HODGES. The overarching theme of the conference was
“Building a LAND Community: Learning Lessons & Sharing Ideas”.
Among the distinguished attendants in the conference were the Chief
of the Hellenic National Defense
General Staff General Mikhail KOSTARAKOS, Commander of Supreme
Allied Command Europe (SACEUR)
General Philip M. BREEDLOVE, Chief
of the Hellenic Army General Staff
(HAGS) Lt. General Christos MANOLAS, Deputy Commander of Supreme
Allied Command Europe (DSACEUR)
Sir Adrian BRADSHAW, Commander
Air Command (AIRCOM) General
Frank GORENC, the Commanders of
NATO Force Structure (NFS) Headquarters along with the Chief of Staff of Allied Command Transformation (ACT),
Commanders of NATO Training Centers
and selected representatives from the
full spectrum of NATO entities.
The main topics that have been discussed during the conference were
“interoperability issues”, “lessons from
ISAF”, “capturing and learning current
lessons”, “logistics in a multinational
joint environment”, and “lessons from
the Ukraine crisis and post-summit implications”. The focus was to come together and provide perspective, useful
solutions and constructive feedback
on progress and future initiatives. The
goal of the event was also to outline
the numerous milestones and challenges LANDCOM and Graduated
Readiness Forces Land (GRFLs) face in
order to engage in a review of thoughts
and ideas at every level to identify the
best ways to face them.
During his opening remarks the
Chief of the Hellenic Army General
Staff, Lt. General Christos Manolas
highlighted the contribution of the
Hellenic armed forces to the Alliance and the collective endeavor for
expeditionary capabilities and key
enabling and support capabilities, by
pointing out the NRDC-GREECE participation in all NATO activities, thus
enhancing the Connected Forces Initiative by linking National with NATO
exercises.
During a press conference Lt. Gen.
Ilias Leontaris, Commander NRDCGreece, stated, “Our headquarters
is a ‘Tool’ and a ‘Pool.’ It is a tool to
identify training and improvement
possibilities for our forces, as well
as a pool to draw talent and experienced personnel for our Army’s missions. This is also a great opportunity
to reduce the budget [armed forces]
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for the participation of our personnel in
NATO and at the same time get all the
benefits that common training among
all NATO members can bring to our officers and NCOs.”
The SACEUR concluded, “As you know
we are adapting to changes here in Europe. This is an historic time for the Alliance and I am proud to say that NATO is
rapidly changing, as the rapidly changing
times are challenging us. It’s been truly
heartening to see our Alliance demonstrating its commitment to the people,
while we are rapidly stepping up to the
changes of our rapidly changing security
environment. The members of NATO
have shown their unity and resolves
that this rapidly changing environment
calls for. I’ve had excellent discussions
with our commanders for the past three
days, as we discuss and develop the advice for our political leaders who will decide how the Alliance move forward in
the coming weeks, and I am looking forward to implementing their decisions.”
It is the first time that a NATO conference of such significance and magnitude
was hosted in NRDC-GREECE with such
a high level of official and broad participation. Great appreciation and compliments from NATO hierarchy about
the organization and support provided,
thus proving the professionalism of the
NRDC-GREECE personnel, was received.
On 15th of October 2014 a press conference was given in a tent from SACEUR General Philip M. Breedlove, COM
LANDCOM Lt. General Ben Hodges,
COM NRDC-GR Lt. Gen. Ilias Leontaris
in the international and local Media.
During the press conference the COM
LANDCOM mentioned the mainstream
of themes of the Agenda , highlighting
the illegal annexation of Crimean from
Russia, the posed threat by ISIL, emphasizing the devotion of the 28 Alliance
countries into the basis of collective defense.
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Lt. General Hodges at his opening
remarks stated:
Let me start by saying first, our
condolences to the Greek military
and the Greek people for the loss
of your three soldiers here recently
in a training accident. A terrible loss
not only for their families, but for the
units and the army, so I personally regret the loss of those three soldiers.
I want to say thanks also to General
Leontaris, Commander of the NATO
Rapid Deployment Core of Greece,
for being the host site here. Great opportunity for our conference in this
incredibly beautiful city of Thessaloniki, thank you very much for that.
Purpose of our conference; why
are we here? Number one is to examine the threats that are facing our Alliance, that was spurred by the illegal
annexation of Crimea by Russia and
also the threat posed by ISIL, so we’re
here to examine that as the Land
Commanders of the Alliance. Second,
we wanted to built on the unity of
the Alliance that all of you saw coming out of the wales summit, a level
of seriousness by all 28 countries and
many of our partners about the importance of our political cohesion,
but also our military preparedness
to continue to assure the thing that
is most important about our Alliance
and why we have been the most successful alliance in the history of the
world. It is that confidence in each
other, collective defense - article 5, an
attack on one is an attack on all - and
so our conference is about how can
we make sure we’re able to do that
part. And then finally, to make sure
that the land forces of the Alliance
in conjunction with air, special forces
and maritime forces of NATO are able
to work together.
So it’s very brief, General Leontaris
I think has a very brief opening statement.
Lt. General Leondaris: I am Lt. Gen.
Leontaris Elias, I am the commander
of NRDC Greece and since Lt. Gen.
Hodges covered the purpose of the
conference, I am going to tell you
what the NRDC—GR stands for. The
NRDC-GR is a tool and a pool for the
army general staff. It’s a tool and a
pool for the Hellenic Defense Forces,
and this is a pool because here we use
it as a training area to prepare our officers and NCOs to be ready to take
over any mission or duty within the
alliance. And also it’s a tool because
we transfer all the NATO knowledge
and know-how through the system
that NATO offers us to our officers.
As you probably know and know very
well, we don’t have nowadays the
luxury, to use this word, the luxury to
assign abroad so many officers as we
did in the past. So we use it as a training tool and as a pool of trained personnel to carry out all the missions
that might be assigned to our headquarters and our army. Thank you.
Lt. General Hodges: Super. Alright,
we look forward to your questions.
1st Question: My name is Leonidias Blaveris from Paratipolika
newspaper. I would like to ask you if
you made some decisions today and
what will happen with the threats at
the border of NATO, ISIS for example,
Syria. What will happen and what
will be the contribution of NATO to
confront this threat?
Lt. General Hodges: First of all, the
conference is about examining the
role of land forces about examining
a joint team within the contemporary security environment in the aftermath of the wales summit. So the
threat posed by ISIL on the boundary
of the alliance, on the Turkish border,
is an important part of what we are
examining. This conference won’t
yield decisions about policy but will
enable the military Commanders of
the Alliance to inform political leadership to make recommendations
about that. Certainly the Alliance
demonstrated its ability to respond
to a threat - you’ll remember only
two years ago that turkey asked for
protection from potential scud missiles coming out of Syria, in an amazingly short amount of time, the other
27 nations agreed to the request
and patriot systems from the united
states, Germany and the Netherlands
deployed in the middle of winter to
south central turkey and were ready
to operate in less than three months
from the request to full operational
capability. So that demonstrates the
Alliance recognizes threats on the
border of member countries and a
willingness to respond, and I am very
confident that our senior leadership,
both military and political, are looking
very closely both as an alliance and of
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course member nations bilaterally, at
the implication of the threat on the
border, and then those veterans if
you will Jihadists that then come back
to their home nations inside the Alliance, the threat that poses.
2nd Question: Hello, we’re from
Hellenic public national television.
the first question is for general Hodges and the second is for General Leontaris. what are the goals and the
time schedule for the operational capabilities of NRDC-Greece and what
can be the Alliances expectations
about the future of these headquarters?
Lt. General Leontaris: The upgrade
to higher readiness forces has been
made by the Greek government. So
the headquarters have been ready
and in fact we are waiting for the exercise in December in order to fulfill
the bureaucratic, let’s say, part of the
process. We are ready, we are going
to exercised with the Land Command,
we are going to be subordinated to
Land Command. This is something
that the evaluation process needs,
and this is going to earmark our upgrade to high readiness. this one has
nothing to do with the evaluation that
we are going to undergo next year.
This is a three year cycle and every
three years all the headquarters, it
doesn’t matter the level of readiness,
have to be evaluated. so we are rated
as high readiness because the Greek
government, the Greek nation, has
decided to do so.
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Lt. General Hodges: From a LANDCOM perspective, what I have seen
from this headquarters and particularly this Commander, who was formerly the chief of staff here so he’s
been invested for quite some time as
a commitment to ensure that NRDCGreece is ready to take on the requirements that the alliance might
put on this headquarters or that the
nation might require of this headquarters. Their decision to participate
in an exercise in December called
Trident Lance is a perfect example
of the implementation of connected
forces initiative that the former secretary general talked about. From
the headquarters they will connect
to our headquarters in Germany, and
the NRDC-Turkey in Istanbul, and also
the multi-national corps North - East
in Poland, so it will be a distributed
exercise, multi-echelon, and then my
headquarters reports under the joint
force command headquarters in Naples, so we’re going to exercise an Article 5 scenario in the Baltics. In terms
of the numbers of headquarters it’s
the largest exercise the Alliance has
done in a very long time, and it’s focused on the Baltics and its an Article 5 scenario. So this Commander is
stepping forward to exercise in the
most challenging environment and
also training in a way that will exercise
our systems more thoroughly, but it’s
also in a way that’s more affordable,
able to exercise from here connected
to four other headquarters that are in
other parts of the geography of the
Alliance. So that’s a forward thinking
commander that you have here at
NRDC-Greece.
Now, I’m a NATO Commander,
but I’m also a US officer, and I am
very happy that we will finally get an
American officer arriving here next
year in the summertime to be a part
of this headquarters. I hope she is the
first of several US officers and NCOs
who will arrive here; that certainly
would be my ambition get the experience of being in this NATO head-
quarters. And then the evaluation
that General Leonaris talked about
of course, next summer, May-June
in Gordian Knot, will be an example
of what NATO exercises ought to be:
rigorous, thorough, and then we can
all walk away from here much more
confident about our abilities
Closing this short interview, Lt.
General Leontaris stated:
“I would like to assure everybody
that this headquarter here is MOUbased headquarter, that means some
nations came together to establish
headquarters but the framework nation is Greece. Greece has taken over
the cost for the establishment, but
the everyday training and exercises
is covered by a common fund that
comes from the eight nations which
constitute the headquarters right
now. It’s a multi-national headquarter, and our military leadership and
through the support of the minister
of national defense, they are trying
to increase this multinationality to
the, let’s say, to the extent it can be
done nowadays where the financial
crisis has affected all the countries.
But as you heard, we have good news
that the United States army decided
already to assign the first officer. And
then we are looking forward for other
countries to follow the example the
United States does.
Thank you very much.
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Exercise GORDIAN KNOT 2014
Main Planning Conference
On the 8th and 9th of July 2014,
NRDC - GR hosted the Main Planning
Conference (MPC) of Ex. GORDIAN
KNOT 14 (GOKT-14), which is the HQ’s
main training activity for 2014, nested to the NATO Ex. TRIDENT LANCE
14 (TRLE-14). Commander NRDC-GR
Lieutenant General llias LEONTARIS
welcomed all the participants and
highlighted in his opening remarks
the importance of the contribution
of all affiliated and dedicated units
for the upcoming exercise.
MPC is part of the Exercise Planning Process with the aim to review
and update the Exercise Plan (EX-
PLAN), the consolidation of the Exercise Control (EXCON) structure and
manning, the refinement of the Real
Life Support (RLS) requirements, the
definition of the exercise play, and
the distribution of responsibilities, as
well as to map out the way ahead for
Ex GOKT-14.
The conference consisted of two
major parts: introduction briefings
and workshops. The first day of the
conference precisely outlined the current situation of the Ex. TRLE/GOKT14
planning process. The intention was
not only to create a common understanding of the situation but also to
better prepare the participants for
the discussion that took place during
the workshops/syndicates (Steering
Syndicate, Manning Syndicate, RLS
Syndicate) to the benefit of Ex. GOKT14.
In the closing remarks, Major General Dimitrios KALOGEROPOULOS,
NRDC GR Chief of Staff, expressed
his gratitude to all the participants,
not only for their presence and critical contribution, but also for the high
level of professionalism they showed
and the excellent work they performed during the conference.
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NRDC-GR G3 AIR Seminar
o n the 19
of September, the annual G3 AIR Branch seminar, entitled
“The 3rd Dimension as a Challenge
for Airspace Management, during
Army Operations”, was carried out in
NRDC-GR HQ.
A total of 25 personnel (ranks OR-6
to OF-5) from internal and external
entities took part in order to analyze Corps airspace users’ requirements and obligations as well as to
strengthen the bonds with NRDC-GR
dedicated CS and CSS Forces.
Army airspace command and control is the Army’s operational approach to accomplishing the functional activity of airspace coordination
Successful battles and engagements
may depend on how effectively airspace over the air-land battlefield is
utilized. Within this airspace, a high
density of friendly weapons systems
and aerial vehicles, with overlapping
operating envelopes and flight profiles, must contribute to maximum
combat effectiveness without interfering with each other. Airspace control maximizes force effectiveness
without hindering the combat power
of any friendly combatant.
It was a roductive seminar and the
presence of colleagues from numerous domains, brought to the participants a considerable sum of experience, knowledge and professional
development.
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NRDC-GR AOCC Seminar “IKAROS II/14”
S
eminar “IKAROS II/14” was organized by NATO Rapid Deployable
Corps Greece/ Air Operations Coordination Centre (NRDC-GR/AOCC) from
6 to 8 October 2014. The seminar
had multiple aims.
On October 6th, the aim was to
familiarize the staff of affiliated units
and HQ NRDC-GR, especially the
newcomers, on matters related to air
issues, focusing on the way NRDC-GR
operations could be supported. Topics like Command and Control (C2)
of Air Operations, Close Air Support
(CAS), Air Interdiction (AI), Air Reconnaissance Operations and Airspace
Control Plan (ACP) were analyzed.
On October 7th, Integrated Command and Control (ICC) training
was provided for AOCC newcomers,
including briefings and hands-on
training regarding MAP, RAP, Mission Planning and Airspace Management. On October 8th, the aim was
to communicate the experience and
knowledge gained at the NATO Joint
Airspace Control Course.
Additionally, the seminar served
as a test-bed for a future course with
external participation that will provide training identical to the unique
NATO-wide “NATO Joint Airspace
Control Course” currently provided
by the Netherlands Air Ground Operations School (NLD AGOS) in close
coordination with HQ AIRCOM Ramstein. A larger-than-ever-before participation and active involvement
made the seminar a successful event,
creating a challenge for the future.
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Gender Seminar
W
ithin the context of the Annual
Training Program 2014 on Monday
3 November 2014 HQ NRDC-GR
hosted at its premises the Gender
Seminar organized by the Office of
Legal/Gender Advisor in cooperation
with the Laboratory of International
Relations and European Integration
of the Department of International
and European Studies of the University of “MAKEDONIA”. The Seminar,
conducted under the title “Assessing
the implementation of UNSCR 1325
“Women, Peace and Security”. Combining NATO and National Perspectives”, was the first ever organized in
NRDC-GR as well as at national level.
Members of the Academic Society,
gender subject matter experts, military professionals and post graduate
students from the University and Services Military Academy had the opportunity to discuss around the same
table the challenges surrounding the
role of women in the entire cycle of
conflict resolution and to evaluate
the implementation of landmark UNSCR 1325 and its accompanied Resolutions related to Women, Peace and
Security.
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The Seminar achieved to create an
interactive forum for all participants to
share knowledge, exchange insights,
expertise and best practices as well as
review and debate the developments
in the field of gender mainstreaming.
The panels formed discussed and assessed the way in which international
organizations (UN, NATO and EU) are
dealing with the issue, whereas the
second one present cases of governmental policies surrounding the implementation of 1325.
The Seminar was addressed by the
COM NRDC-GR, Lt General IIias Leontaris and Professor IIias Kouskouvelis,
Dean of the School of Social Sciences, Humanity and Arts, University of
Macedonia, also appointed as Chairman of “Thukidides - The Hellenic
National Defence General Staff Chair
in Strategic Studies”.
Following the introductory remarks of Senior LEGAD, Maj Karatzias
Vasileios, the floor was given to the
first speaker, Mrs Martina Lindberg,
who presented the Swedish experience on gender, acting in her capacity as representative of the Swedish National Defence College for
the implementation of UNSCR. The
first session ended with Maj Lotta
Ekvall, GENAD CHIEF to COM KFOR,
who shared the KFOR Perspective on
implementing gender on the field.
The second session started with Ms
Chainoglou Kalliopi, Lecturer in International and European Institutions at
the University of “MACEDONIA”, who
addressed the UN Framework on
WPS. Afterwards, Cpt Irini Pantzou,
Legal and also Gender Advisor of the
seminars - conferences
HQ and Cpt Vasileios Zalidis, Legal Advisor of the HQ presented the NATO
and EU perspective on WPS respectively. The second session was completed with Ms Aysegul Binali, Focal
Point and Administrator for Civilian
Planning in LANDCOM HQ, who dealt
with the issue of Children and Armed
Conflict (CAAC) within NATO. During
the third session Lt Col Tenisci Aldo,
Gender Focal Point in the ITA JOHQ,
took the floor and analyzed the Italian Approach of Gender Perspective
in Military Operations and at the end
of this session Mrs Fotini Bellou, Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Department of International and European Studies at the
University of “MACEDONIA” and also
Special Advisor to the COM NRDCGR on civil-military cooperation and
gender issues, had the opportunity
to present the Hellenic Experience
on Women, Peace and Security.
During the Seminar discussions
focalized on how the WPS agenda,
which is still severely lacking, will be
pushed forward in innovative ways
taking stock of national action plans
and regional strategies. Due emphasis was also put on the sensitive issue of children participation to the
armed conflicts and the particular
ways through which the impact on
them could be reduced.
COS NRDC-GR, Lt. General Dimitrios. Kalogeropoulos, who proceeded
with the closing remarks, expressed
his appreciation to all speakers and
participants for their valuable contribution to the successful conduct of
the event and highlighted the importance of the integration of a gender
perspective in military operations, as
a tool to increase operational effectiveness and achieve mission accomplishment.
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seminars - conferences
nrdc-gr 10th Plenary Conference 2014
The 10th NRDC-GR Plenary Confer-
ence was held at the HQ’s premises
from the 16th to 18th of December
2014. Senior National Representatives authorized to represent their
Nations and participants from the
Hellenic National Defense General
Staff (HNDGS), the Hellenic Army
General Staff (HAGS) representing
Greece, as well as Italian and Polish
National Defense Staff representatives, attended the plenary.
The aim of the conference was to
approve the proposals for changes in
the structure of our HQ in order to
invite members from new Nations
and additional members from the
already participating countries in
NRDC-GR HQ.
In his welcoming remarks, Lt. General Ilias LEONTARIS expressed his
sincere greetings to all the participants and highlighted the HQ’s HRF
transformation since the last 9th Plenary Conference in 2013, as well as
ask kindly the participating nations
to approve the structural changes of
the HQ and bid for the current PE/CE
vacant posts.
It is also noteworthy that the significant outcomes of the conference
are the implementation of the agreement for the participation of Poland
with two (2) new Polish personnel to
the HQ’s PE posts and an additional
Italian Officer.
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seminars - conferences
Annual LOAC Conference 2015
W
ithin the context of the Annual Training Program 2015 the Office of Legal Advisor of HO NRDCGR organized and conducted on
Wednesday 14th and Thursday
15th January 2015 the annual Legal
Conference hosted at the NRDC-GR
premises in Thessaloniki. The 2015
Legal Conference was conducted
under the title “Innovation in the
Law of Armed Conflicts: New Challenges, New Perspectives.”
Highly reputed members of the
Academic Society, legal advisors
from the NATO Command and
Force Structure as well as high
ranking officers and military professionals had the opportunity to
discuss around the same table and
from various perspectives all crucial issues related to the “ius ad
bellum” and “ius in bello” and explore the numerous contemporary
challenges to the Law of Armed
Conflicts.
The Conference successfully enabled an interactive forum for all
participants to share knowledge,
exchange insights, as well as review and debate the new perspectives in the Law of Armed Conflicts
(LOAC). During the two days of
the Conference two sessions were
held: the first day’s focusing on issues arising from the use of force
in international relations (ius ad
bellum), whereas the second day’s
concentrated on the new challenges to the means and methods of
warfare (ius in bello) with an emphasis on the implementation of
the principle of distinction in targeting processes.
During the two days Seminar discussions focused on whether the
response to the new type of war-
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seminars - conferences
fare (hybrid warfare, cyber-attacks
and asymmetric threats) can be addressed within or question the status quo of “ius ad bellum” and “ius
in bello”. The overview of this Conference was that all participants
expressed great interest in analyzing these aspects, a fact that was
proved by a vivid dialogue, even
including different arguments, following every presentation.
COM NRDC-GR, Lt General lIias
Leontaris, addressed the Conference and highlighted that initiatives of such kind contribute to
common understanding of these
complex (legal) matters and serve
the Alliance towards a more balanced combination of practical
necessities and legal requirements
during the conduct of military operations.
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community relations
Commander KFOR/JLSG Visit to NRDC-GR
C
ommander KFOR/JLSG (COM
KFOR/JLSG), COL (FRA-A) MEHU Olivier, visited NATO Rapid Deployable
Corps - Greece Headquarters (NRDCGR HQ), on the 10th of July 2014.
The visitor, accompanied by Chief
Of Staff (COS) KFOR/JLSG and key position staff officers of his headquarters, had an office call with NRDC-GR
COS, MAJOR GENERAL KALOGEROPOULOS Dimitrios.
COL MEHU Olivier received detailed briefings on structure, mission
and training activities of NRDC-GR
HQ. In the context of a better understanding for the JLSG mission in
KFOR, COLONEL MEHU delivered a
detailed briefing concerning KFOR/
JLSG mission and activities.
Colonel MEHU expressed his appreciation for the warm hospitality
and his confidence that NRDC-GR has
all required capabilities to fulfill its
mission, thanks to the professionalism of the personnel of the HQ.
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community relations
O n Friday, the 11 of July 2014, French Flag Raising Ceremony
the French Flag Raising Ceremony was
th
held in the NRDC-GR premises, with the
presence of NRDC-GR Chief of Staff Major General Dimitrios KALOGEROPOULOS on behalf of NRDC-GR Commander
Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS, and
the Consul General de France a Thessalonique, Mr Christophe LERIGOLLEUR.
COL(FR A) Philippe Baulain, the senior national representative in the HQ,
addressed the attendees of the ceremony with a short speech, as following:
“Sir, Monsieur le consul general de
France, Sirs, dear guests, dear comrades
NRDC-GR is celebrating this morning altogether the French Flag and the French
national day.
So, I must first, thank our Commander, represented today by our Chief of
Staff and with him more generally all
Greek Military Authorities and you also,
our Greek comrades, for this opportunity, for your constant attention and
for your confidence towards our French
contingent.
Traditionally in France, the 14th of
July, as national day, is also a day for
the whole population to celebrate its
Armed Forces. Today 6900 French military are commited in about 20 different
operations throughout the world. Since
July 2013, French forces suffered from
10 Killed in Action, of whom 9 from the
army, and from dozens of wounded in
action, in AFG, CAR, MALI, NIGER. I am
sure of your association in this sad but
faithful remembrance.
As for the history, both the Flag and
the national day find their origins during the French revolution era, in the last
decade of the eighteenth century.
The Flag. During the revolutionary
wars, three-colored flags were given directly to the military units, as symbols of
their specific status and responsibilities,
as “The French People in arms”. Since,
France has kept the same flag, and military units still have their own official
three colored combat flag.
The French National Flag is formed
with three colored vertical stripes of
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same size. Blue and red come from the
colors of the militia of Paris, which was
of specific influence during these very
violent times. The white was the traditional color of the Monarchy.
Today Article 2of the current constitution of the 5th Republic, specifies:
“the national emblem is the blue white
red three-colored flag”.
The national day was rather lately
identified, almost one century later,
under the 3rd Republic, through a law
voted on the 6th of July 1880. At this
time, in France, there was still a critical
need to strengthen both national unity
and republican regime. Since then, the
14th of July is the French national day
and celebrates two discrete events.
Firstly, on the 14th of July 1789 the
people of Paris assaulted LA BASTILEE,
a castle that was a royal jail. The fall
of this prison appeared as the symbol
of the end of the absolutism and by
extension became celebration of the
Republic.
Secondly, one year later, on the 14th
of July 1790, the revolutionary regime
celebrated magnificently but peacefully this time, the Federation Day,
gathering representatives from all over
France, thus representing national unity.
Vive la Republique Francaise, vive la
France.”
The Consul General de France a
Thessalonique, Mr Christophe LERIGOLLEUR and all staff members of the
HQ were present for the event. After
the ceremony, a reception was held in
the HQ.
community relations
Chief of the United Kingdom Defense Staff
visit to NRDC-GR HQ
G eneral Sir Nicholas Houghton,
Chief of the Defense Staff of the
United Kingdom, accompanied by
the Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, General Mikhail
Kostarakos, visited NRDC-GR HQ on
Thursday the 17th, July 2014.
Commander NRDC-GR Lieutenant
General Ilias LEONTARIS welcomed
the distinguished visitors to the HQ’s
premises. A briefing was delivered in
the HQ’s main conference room “Alexander the Great” for the history,
mission, capabilities and way ahead
of NRDC-GR followed by a discussion
on mutual interest issues.
The visit concluded with a ceremonial emblem exchange and a commemorative photo in front of the
main entrance of NRDC-GR HQ.
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community relations
LANDCOM’s DCOM Visit to NRDC-GR
T
he Deputy Commander of
Land Command (DCOM LANDCOM)
Lieutenant General Sir Ed DAVIS
visited NATO Rapid Deployable
Corps Greece Headquarters (NRDCGREECE HQ) during his official presence in Thessaloniki on Wednesday
Sep 3rd, 2014.
After a warm welcome by the
Commander NRDC-GREECE Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS, Sir
Ed DAVIS received a detailed brief
on the structure, mission and training activities of the HQ, followed by
a presentation about the roadmap
to HRF implementation and Combat Readiness Evaluation (CREVAL)
of NRDC-GR . A follow on discussion
took place regarding the upcoming
exercise and CREVAL as well as other NATO and LANDCOM issues.
After the meeting Lieutenant
General Sir Ed DAVIS expressed
his appreciation for the warm hospitality, highlighted the quality of
NRDC-GR personnel. The visit concluded with a ceremonial emblem
exchange and a commemorative
photo in front of the main entrance
of NRDC-GR HQ.
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community relations
Chief of the Hungarian Defense Staff
visit to NRDC-GR
G eneral Tibor BENKO, Chief
of the Defense Staff of Hungary,
accompanied by the Chief of the
Hellenic National Defense General Staff, General Mikhail Kostarakos, visited NRDC-GR HQ on
Thursday the 11th, September
2014.
Commander NRDC-GR Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS
welcomed the distinguished
visitors to the HQ’s premises.
A briefing delivered in the HQ’s
main conference room “Alexander the Great” for the history,
mission, capabilities and way
ahead of NRDC-GR followed by
a discussion on mutual interest
issues.
The Hungarian CHOD had also
the opportunity to visit key installations and facilities of NRDCGR related to its operational
capabilities, such as the Digital
Mobile Printery and the Mobile
Air Operations Coordination
Center.
On his closing remarks, the
Hungarian CHOD expressed his
appreciation for the warm hospitality.
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community relations
9th Anniversary of NRDC-GR
ties. Among them were the Minister
of Macedonia and Thrace, Mr. Georgios ORFANOS, the Alternate Minister of National Defense Mrs Fotini
GENNIMATA, the Chief of the Hellenic Army General Staff Lieutenant
General Christos MANOLAS, significant representation of the consular
community of Thessaloniki, former
Commanders, Flag officers and other
distinguished visitors.
The celebration took part at the
Thessaloniki’s Officers club followed
by a small reception.
On Friday 26
of October 2014,
NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Greece
(NRDC-GREECE) celebrated its 9th
Anniversary since its activation as a
NATO HQ.
It was at the end of 2005, when
the North Atlantic Council accepted
the offer of Greece for the establishment of a Deployable Corps size HQ
with Low Readiness status, named
NATO Deployable Corps – Greece,
as a part of the general structural
changes of the Alliance. Since then,
the HQ has achieved tremendous
milestones, like CREVAL in 2008 with
High Readiness Force (HRF) criteria
and the assumption of LCC role for
NRF 2012, and the latest one for the
decision of the HQ upgrade as a High
Readiness (L) NATO Rapid Deployable
Corps - Greece.
During his speech COM NRDCGREECE highlighted that “there is a
critical imperative for the Alliance
to maintain effective military forces, including NRDC-GR in the NATO
Force Structure, to guaranty security
and safety for its members. NRDCth
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GREECE efforts to sustain and further
develop its potentials, according to
NATO’s Ground Forces Standards, will
continue and the determination of its
leadership is a guarantee on this direction”.
During the ceremony the Commander of NRDC-GREECE Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS hosted
many officials from the contributing
Nations to HQ’s structure and the National Political and Military authori-
community relations
German Flag Raising Ceremony
O n October 3
NRDC-GR HQ celebrated the German National Day with
the flag raising ceremony in front of
the main building of HQ at Pedion
Areos camp with the presence of the
Commander NRDC-GR Lieutenant
General Ilias LEONTARIS, the German
General Dr Jugo van Voss and the entire staff of the HQ. The event attended also many German invitees living
in Thessaloniki.
The official National Day of Germany is October 3rd and this day is
referred to the accession period from
1989 to 1990 within the German
Democratic Republic (GDR) reunified
with to the Federal Republic of Germany.
Leading the way for this development was the opening of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 which
caused the final collapse of the political system of the GDR.
LtCol. Ole Klingebiel, as Senior German Officer assigned to NRDC-GR,
delivered a speech explaining also the
meaning of the colors and the three
discrete parts of German flag.
A reception hosted by the German
contingent followed at the end of the
celebration including also original
German beer and food for all the HQ
personnel.
rd
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community relations
Turkish Flag Raising Ceremony
The Turkish Republic Day was cel-
ebrated at NRDC-GR with a Flag raising Ceremony on Friday, the 31th October 2014. NRDC-GR Chief of Staff
M. General Dimitrios KALOGEROPOULOS, the Turkish General Consul
Mr. Tuğrul BİLTEKİN, distinguished
guests and the entire staff of the HQ
participated in the event.
During the Ceremony, a speech
was delivered by the Senior National Representative of Turkey for the
meaning of the occasion.
Lt Col. Sakin KUTSAL, as Senior
National Representative of Turkey
in NRDC-GR delivered his address to
all participants. During his speech he
presented the history of the Republic
of Turkey starting from 29 October
1923. He also mentioned that during
these 91 years Turkey has achieved
significant milestones of development not only as a Democratic country but also as an important contributor to the world peace throughout its
membership to NATO as well as its
stabilizing role to all neighboring to
Turkey region. Finally he expressed
his gratitude for the hospitality that
Greece as Host Nation provides to
Turkish officers assigned to NRDCGR.
After the ceremony a small reception was held in the HQ.
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community relations
Hellenic National Defence College (HNDC)
Visit to NRDC- GREECE
O n the 17
of November 2014
the Hellenic National Defense College (HNDC) paid an official visit
to NATO Rapid Deployable Corps
- Greece (NRDC-GREECE) Headquarters in Thessaloniki, in the
framework of their training calendar. Commander Lieutenant General Andreas ILIOPOULOS, the staff
and students of the HNDC, were
welcomed by COM NRDC-GREECE
Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS and briefed on the structure,
role and mission of the HQ. The
presentation was followed by a
very fruitful discussion.
th
The HNDC is the last and highest level of academic education for
the officers of the Armed Forces,
as well as for the high ranking civilian personnel, and executives of
the Security Forces, Coast Guard,
ministries, public organizations
and institutions, providing a high
level academic knowledge in the
broad field of Strategic Studies.
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community relations
Albanian Flag Raising Ceremony
T
he NRDC¬GR celebrated the Albanian Independence day, with a flag
raising ceremony on 29th of November 2013 in front of the main building
of the HQ, with the presence of the
Deputy Commander NRDC¬GR Major General Plamen LILOV, the General Consul of Albanian Republic in
Thessaloniki Mr. Vasili Valera,Senior
National Representative (SNRs) of
the NRDC GR participating Nations,
distinguished guests from the Consulate General and the Albanian Community in Thessaloniki as well as the
entire staff of the HQ.
The Albanian Senior National
Representative in the HQ Ltc Kasem
SALIASI, addressed the HQ on the
meaning of the day, Albanian Flag
and Armed Forces. He focused his
speech in three important things for
his country the mining off: Independence Day for Albania, the Flag and
the nowadays mission of the Albanian Army. After five hundred years
of occupation domination, an independent Albania was proclaimed on
the 28 November 1912. Apart from
the exception during the fifteenth
century, when Albania enjoyed a
brief period of independence under
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the legendary hero, Gjergj Kastrioti
Skanderbeg, the country did not enjoy independence until that day. The
Flag of Albania is a red flag, with a silhouetted black double headed eagle
in the centre that represents the sovereign state of Albania located in the
Balkans. The red color symbolizes the
blood of all fighters who lost their life
in behalf of Albanian freedom. The
double¬ headed eagle is the national
symbol of the Albanian and it was
used for heraldic purposes during the
Middle Ages by number of Albanian
noble families, including the Kastrioti, whose most famous member was
Gjergj Kastriot Skanderbeg. On the
4th December 1912, just 6 days after
the declaration of independence of
Albania, National Army was established and it was for the first time in
its history, when the Ministry of National Defense was created. The ceremony ended with small reception
for all inviters.
community relations
Commander’s NRDC-GR Visit to KFOR HQ
On 18
December 2014, Commander (COM) NATO
Rapid Deployable Corps Greece (NRDC-GR) Lieutenant General Ilias LEONTARIS visited Kosovo Forces’ Headquarters
(KFOR HQ) in Pristina to meet the Hellenic contingent and
exchange wishes for the upcoming holidays.
During his visit COM NRDC – GR had the opportunity to
talk with the Hellenic men and women who serve in KFOR
and expressed his sincere appreciation for the great efforts
and dedication to their mission.
th
COM NRDC-GR had an office call by the COMKFOR
Major General Francesco Paolo FIGLIUOLO taking the
chance to discuss the last developments in Kosovo and
common interest issues. COM KFOR highlighted during
the discussions the professionalism of both the Hellenic
and Allied personnel. The office call concluded with the
exchange of wishes from both sited for the upcoming
Christmas Holidays and the new year’s 2015 Eve.
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community relations
C'Corps|nrdc-gr Christmas Wishes Ceremony
On 24 December 2014, in the
th
spirit of the upcoming Christmas
celebration, Commander (COM)
NATO Rapid Deployable Corps
Greece (NRDC-GR) Lieutenant
General Ilias LEONTARIS received
wishes from the HQ’s personnel,
Greek and Allied, enjoyed the
famous Greek Carols “Kalanda”
sang by the C’ Army Corps Military Band and many other Bands,
and choirs of ,military formations
and local institutions.
The ceremony honored by the
presence of the Secretary General
of Greek Ministry of Defense, Antonios OIKONOMOU, who awarded high school students of C’
Corps’ and NRDC-GR families for
their outstanding performance
for the last academic year 20132014.
During the event COM NRDCGR had the opportunity to talk
with the multinational personnel
of the HQ, exchange ideas about
holiday’s plans for the Christmas
break as well as to excpress his
sincere appreciation for the great
effort and dedication to their mission and duties.
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