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At the 2002 Prague Summit, NATO Heads of State and Government endorsed the implementation of five CBRN initiatives to enhance the Alliance’s defence capabilities against weapons of mass destruction.
The North Atlantic Council, in June 2003, decided to further enhance and take forward these initiatives by forming a Multinational CBRN Defence Battalion and Joint Assessment Team.
The structure of the Battalion was established at a planning conference on 17-18 September 2003. The following month, on 28 October 2003, a force generation conference was held at Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe. On 18-21 November 2003, a follow-up conference was held in the Czech Republic, the first volunteer lead country.
The Battalion reached its Initial Operational Capability on 1 December 2003. Full Operational Capacity was achieved on 1 July 2004, and responsibility was transferred into the operational command of Allied Command Operations. From then on, the Battalion was included in the six-month rotation system of the NRF.
The concept of operations and capability requirements of the Battalion are currently being reviewed to incorporate lessons learned from previous NRF cycles and operational deployments.
