NATO Rapid Response Force? More nonsense!

via Defence 24.

The North Atlantic Council has decided to increase the target size of the NATO Response Force to a maximum of 40 000 soldiers, which means a threefold increase compared to the situation before the crisis in Ukraine. In addition, the commander of the Covenant in Europe will receive the power to increase the readiness unit VJTF before deciding on their use.
During the meeting, the North Atlantic Council of NATO defense ministers decided to increase the number of NATO Response Force to a maximum of 40 000 soldiers. This means tripling the number of formations, which even before the crisis in Ukraine had 13 000 soldiers.

Story here.

I guess Rapid Response Forces are back in fashion.  The problem that I have is we're looking at more of the same, rather than a step in the right direction.  What do I mean?

Consider.  The EU has more "BattleGroups" (another word for Rapid Response Force than makes sense.  According to Wikipedia there are currently 18 of them.  Many of them overlap with a couple of countries being members of at least two and sometimes 3 different groups.

But it doesn't stop there.  If you count the Combined Expeditionary Force (France and the UK), Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (US, UK, Italy, Germany and many others), include the Gendarmerie Rapid Reaction Force and other quasi military units into the mix then one thing becomes apparent.

NATO, the EU and the political leadership loves bureaucracy.

This isn't a serious effort, its just another mixing of the deck chairs.  A little busy work to keep the journalist that don't know squat from asking real questions.  The sad thing is that its working.