Admiral Robert P. Burke, Commander Allied Joint Force Command Naples, visited Romania
to meet with NATO Commanders and observe NATO forces at the Cincu Training Area, 19th April
2022.
The visit included exchanges with commanders from the Multi-national Division Southeast,
Multi-national Corps Southeast, leaders of the Romanian Joint Force Command and NATO
Force Integration Unit as well as supporting NATO commanders.
Admiral Burke is the commander of NATO's Joint Task Force South and East, responsible for
the strengthening of NATO's eastern flank and the further integration of national defence
plans with the broader defence of the NATO Alliance in the Black Sea Region.
As Commander, Allied Joint Force Headquarters in Naples, Italy, Burke directs a combined
staff, representing NATO's 30 Allies, responsible for planning, preparing, and conducting military
operations throughout the Supreme Allied Commander Europe's area of responsibility.
The command oversees three efforts across the Western Balkans: the Kosovo Force, NATO
Headquarters Sarajevo, and the NATO Military Liaison Office in Belgrade.
The command is also responsible for NATO's mission in Iraq.
His visit comes at a time of challenge and change for NATO forces following the Russian
illegal invasion of Ukraine.
NATO's four established enhanced forward presence multinational battalion-size battlegroups
in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland deployed after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea
in 2014 and led by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany
and the United States respectively, has now expanded, with Allies having agreed to establish
four more multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
NATO leaders meeting during an extraordinary summit in Brussels on 24 March 2022 approved
the establishment of these four new multinational battlegroups in Eastern Europe.
France will lead a battlegroup in Romania; the Czech Republic, one in Slovakia; and Bulgaria
and Hungary will lead battlegroups on their own territory.
The Czech-led battlegroup will have troops from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia,
Slovenia, and the United States.
Since 2014, the NATO Response Force battlegroups, which is designed to provide a rapid military
response in a crisis, has grown from 13,000 to more than 40,000 troops.
The majority of these forces have been stationed in eastern Europe to allay fears along the
military bloc’s border with Russia.
These polish troops are here conducting training with Romanian and the French troops, Frtench
forces are leading the Battlegroup in Romania.
The polish are operating the KTO Rosomak an 8×8 multi-role military vehicle, with three
crew it can carry eight passengers.
Infantry carriers appear to be the vehicle of choice today, with Romanian soldiers operating
the very new PIRANHA 5 8x8 infantry fighting vehicle, again operates with a crew of 3 and
8 passengers and the french forces have brought along the VAB Armoured personnel carriers
with a crew of two and able to carry ten passengers