| Joint Rapid Reaction Force | |
|---|---|
 16 Air Assault Brigade, a key element of the JRRF | |
| Active | 1999–2010 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Role | Rapid deployment force |
| Part of | British Armed Forces (tri-service) |
| Components | Royal Navy Royal Marines British Army Royal Air Force |
The Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF) was a capability concept of the British Armed Forces from 1999 to 2010. It was a pool of specialised units from all three armed services tasked with rapid deployment worldwide at short notice. The force was intended to be capable of mounting operations up to medium scale warfighting. It could be employed nationally, or multinationally under the auspices of NATO, the United Nations or any other coalition.
The JRRF was an initiative in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review. An initial rapid reaction capability was declared in April 1999 and was fully operational in 2001.[1] It was originally intended that JRRF would be able to mount up to two simultaneous operations of up to 15,000 personnel each. A major military exercise called Saif Sareea II was held in Oman in September 2001 to test the deployment of the JRRF.[2]
In the event of the JRRF being activated, the force commander was the Chief of the Joint Rapid Reaction Force (CJRRFO) who was responsible to the Chief of Joint Operations (CJO) at the Permanent Joint Headquarters at Northwood. A Joint Task Force HQ (JTFHQ) would have accompanied the force to provide local command, which was maintained at 48 hours' notice to move. Until deployed, operational control of the various units was the responsibility of the single-service Commanders-in-Chief.[3]
Because of the United Kingdom's simultaneous commitments to operations in the War in Afghanistan from 2001 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, there were insufficient uncommitted forces to support the JRRF. In 2010, the Lancaster House Treaties gave rise to the Anglo-French Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF), which restored a rapid deployment capability, although there are no permanently assigned forces. In 2012, proposals were unveiled for the Joint Expeditionary Force, which can be deployed as an all-British force, or preferably in combination with other European allies.[4][5]
- ^ Ministry of Defence - The Permanent Joint Headquarters
- ^ "Top Guns". Oman Economic Review. United Press and Publishing, LLC. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 9 May 2011.
- ^ Ministry of Defence - The Permanent Joint Headquarters - PJHQ organisation Joint Rapid Reaction Forces
- ^ Saxi, Håkon Lunde (May 2018). "The UK Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF)" (PDF). fhs.brage.unit.no/fhs-xmlui. FHS Brage - høgskolens digitale arkiv. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ [1] The UK Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) by Håkon Lunde Saxi, IFS Insights 5/2018, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Oslo 2018. ISSN 1894-4795