From 29 April to 6 May 2011 approximately 20 NATO service members, coming from NATO's Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC BS), Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg (FC HD) as well as the Component Commands, deployed to the Joint Warfare Centre, Stavanger, Norway, to train for the NATO Response Force (NRF) exercise at the end of this year.

The main objective was to train the coordination between Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC BS) as the Main Headquarters and a deployed Operational Liaison Reconnaissance Team (OLRT) in a humanitarian crisis scenario. The planning process started at JFC BS with the OLRT acting as their “eyes and ears” in the possible area of operations. The information collected by the OLRT has an important impact on the decision making process. Therefore, the Joint Warfare Centre set up an environment including the role players, who acted as Chief of Cabinet, UN representatives as well as members of International and Non-Governmental Organizations (IOs/NGOs). At the end of the training event, the leader of the OLRT, Brigadier General Eddy Staes (BEL) said: “To train here at Stavanger was a great opportunity. It added value to our understanding of how cooperation and use of an OLRT in any crisis situation should be for mission success. The environment created by the Joint Warfare Centre was reflecting this reality and it allowed us to train as we fight.”