| Unit Name: | HQ RRC-Fr |
| Start Date: | 2005 |
| Country: | France |
| Branch: | French Army |
| Type: | Headquarters |
| Garrison: | Lille |
| Motto: | Your operational solution |
| Website: | RRC-Fr |
| Current Commander: | Lieutenant General Emmanuel Gaulin |
The Rapid Reaction Corps — France (RRC-FR) was created on 1 July 2005 by the French Army. It is NATO certified and capable of commanding a national or multinational land component of up to 120,000 personnel. The corps is intended to command forces under French, EU or NATO command. It is subordinated to the French Army's Commandement de la Force et des Opérations Terrestres, the land forces command.[1]
The corps is stationed in Lille, within the Citadel of Lille, a 17th-century citadel also known as "the Queen of the Citadels", designed by the famous French fortress designer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban.
The corps is led by the French Army and designed to direct a multinational force of up to army corps size. It numbers 450 personnel (including 70 non-French officers and NCOs from 12 different EU or NATO countries) and up to 750 in times of crisis. The corps HQ is open to all EU and NATO members (18% of its strength). Though stationed in France, its working language is English. In 2003, the decision was taken to create a rapid reaction force headquarters. The RRC-FR headquarters began forming on 1 July 2005. The CRR-FR was officially founded on 1 October 2006, in a ceremony including representatives of 22 nations, along with generals Henri Bentégeat and Bernard Thorette, then Chief of Staff of the French Army. Establishing the RRC-FR has been seen as a move to strengthen the emergence of a European defence force.[2]
Following a detailed examination of its capabilities during exercises CITADEL BONUS 2023[3] and LOYAL LEDA 2024,[4] the Rapid Reaction Corps — France was certified as a Warfighting Corps (WFC) by NATO in January 2024.[5]
Once placed on alert, it can deploy reconnaissance teams to an operation area within two days, following a political decision to commit troops and a command post (CP) in less than thirty days.
HQ RRC-FR can perform a wide variety of missions, ranging from initial entry to stabilisation operations. It can be committed within a multinational environment, in the framework of NATO, the European Union (EU), or French mandate. Thus:
At the same time, French personnel of RRC-FR’s staff contribute to the Opération Sentinelle as all French army operational units.
With a multinational corps, the French Army has a complete range of different sizes of HQ from battalion up to Corps. Its creation allows France to contribute according to its position and international commitments while remaining consistent with national security and defence requirements within the framework of the EU or NATO.
In a crisis, French and Allied operational reinforcements would augment its strength to 750 personnel to enable HQ RRC-FR to conduct long-term, high-intensity operations.
In addition to France, the corps framework states that fifteen different states contribute to the staff permanently, representing 80 personnel.
Everything is done to draw on the military experience of each nation. A constant exchange is facilitated by the use of English as a common working language.
To ensure its ability to be deployed at any time, the RRC-FR organizes exercises for its personnel and subaltern units.
In 2023, exercise Citadel Bonus 2023 enabled the RRC-FR to be certified by NATO as a Warfighting Corps (WFC). The corps took the WFC alert in January 2024, for one year.
List of previous exercises :
The corps benefits from the best fibre-optic-equipped site among the French Army: about 300 km fibre deployed between and inside its 17th-century walls. There, are 18 (French + NATO) computer and phone networks.
All of them can be projected, via satellite link to an operational theatre providing HQ RRC-FR with the capacity to command, if needed, an operation from its Citadel based Command Post, thanks to a rear Homebase Operation Center (HBOC).
As for now, HQ RRC-FR benefits from the sole French phone exchange directly connected to the NATO network.
A 24 person-team is responsible for assembling, maintenance and operation on these networks, which offers HQ RRC-FR complete autonomy in this domain, compared to other headquarters.
When deployed, HQ RRC-FR can use up to five thousand square metres of tentage, four hundred and fifty modular CP shelters, seventy kilometres of electrical cable, one hundred and twenty kilometres of fibre optics and sixteen hundred computers.