Ulm, 02 February 2024. During the past days, an EU Military Planning and Conduct Capability (MPCC) delegation chaired by French Colonel Arnaud Drier de Laforte undertook a working visit to the Ulm Wilhelmsburg Barracks to meet with the staff of the Ulm Command. The key topic on the agenda was the support the Ulm Command can provide to the MPCC in Brussels. For 2025, the MPCC is scheduled to achieve its full operational capability as a military-strategic headquarters tasked to exercise command and control of the EU response forces. In that respect, it partly relies on the planning expertise and capacities the Ulm Command can contribute to the preparation for the command and control tasks envisaged for 2025.

The EU must be able to respond to crisis scenarios swiftly and effectively. In order to ensure the operational capability and interoperability of its headquarters and armed forces, the EU and its member states must further develop the EU command and control structures with a view to current and future missions and operations conducted on the basis of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), and adapt these structures to meet new challenges and requirements.

In 2025, Germany in its capacity as a framework nation will assume command and control of the new reinforced EU response forces. The core of these forces will be the Rapid Deployment Capacity (RDC), which will provide up to 5,000 soldiers in response to various types of crises, depending on the operational scenario. The RDC is scheduled to be available from 2025 based on a joint and multinational approach and reinforced by air, sea, and special operations forces. This will permit covering a considerably higher task spectrum than during previous EU battlegroup scenarios. The MPCC is scheduled to exercise strategic level command and control of these forces from 2025.

Ulm's Key Competence Range: From the High Tactical Level to the Military-Strategic Level

Participating in a series of planning conferences and command post exercises until 2025, the Ulm Command will support the MPCC in Brussels on its way towards fully achieving the planned military-strategic operational capability including the relevant capabilities and capacities. In addition, it also makes its contribution to the further development of the new EU response forces concept for 2025. This means the Multinational Joint Headquarters Ulm uses its planning expertise in support of the further enhancement of the European Union's crisis response capability.

Forming an interface positioned between the EU and NATO, the Multinational Joint Headquarters Ulm provides a proven strategic-level headquarters that employs its planning capacity, its capabilities, and its expertise in support of military operations and exercises on the basis of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Strengthening the CSDP, as well as its inherent ability to act and respond to crises are key components of the Strategic Compass approved by the European Council in March 2022.