NATO has said that the command of the Alliance's High Readiness Force will be handed over to Turkey from January 1. According to a NATO statement, the leadership of the "Very High Readiness Joint Task Force" will be handed over to the Turkish army from Friday, January 1. The NATO force consists of thousands of troops who can be deployed immediately anywhere. Poland currently has command of the force, which expires on December 31. The Turkish military will take over command of NATO's Readiness Force for the next year.
The command of the 4,200 troops of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force will go to Turkey's 66th Mechanized Infantry Bridge Command. The force will also include 6,400 troops from the United States, Britain, Spain, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Montenegro, Latvia, Italy, Hungary, and Albania.
A NATO statement said that Turkey has invested heavily in the supply of mobile units, logistics and ammunition for the Alliance's military. Turkey has donated state-of-the-art military vehicles, anti-tank missiles and other critical military equipment to the NATO force.
NATO's Very High Readiness Task Force was established in 2014. The force was formed in light of the changing security situation in the region as Russia began to disrupt Ukraine and the Middle East.
