Rapid reaction force

Term referring to specific formations of rapid deployment force, which can be defined as a ‘short-notice contingency force’. At the Helsinki summit of 1999, European Union leaders decided to give teeth to their Common Foreign and Security Policy, by setting up a European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF). The ERRF should be operational by 2003, with member states committing themselves to fielding a total of 60,000 group troops, deployable within 60 days, for periods of up to one year. The ERRF will provide the EU with its own military capability and allow it to undertake tasks from humanitarian and rescue missions to peacekeeping and actual combat; the so-called Petersberg Tasks. The ERRF will come into action only ‘where NATO as a whole is not engaged’.

— Yuen Foong Khong

A rapid reaction force is a military or police unit designed to respond in very short time frames to emergencies. When used in reference to police forces such as SWAT teams, the time frame is minutes, while in military applications, such as with the use of paratroops or other commandos, the time frame is hours to days.

Rapid reaction forces are designed to intervene quickly in rather low-intensity conflicts, such as uprisings that necessitate the evacuation of foreign embassies. Because they are usually transported by air, such military units are usually lightly armed, but often extremely well trained to compensate for their lower calibre weapons and lack of heavy equipment like tanks.

See also

• Eurofor
• European Gendarmerie Force
• European Union Battlegroups
• Allied Rapid Reaction Corps
• United States Rapid Deployment Forces
• Helsinki Headline Goal Force Catalogue - misleadingly sometimes known as the 'European Rapid Reaction Force'
• Quick reaction force

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