Poggio Renatico, Italy - On19
January 2016, General Frank Gorenc, Commander of Allied Air Command at
Ramstein Air Base, officiated the ceremony inaugurating Major General
Andreas F. Kraak, Royal Netherlands Air Force, as the Commander of NATO’s DACCC.
Major General Kraak has
been an F-16 fighter pilot for over 30 years with a total of more than 2,500
hours. He has been squadron commander, base commander and was Chief of the
Planning Cell at CAOC Vicenza during operations in Kosovo in 1999. After several
staff functions in various commands he was promoted to his current rank and was
appointed to as the DACCC Commander with effect from 1 January 2016 confirmed
by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.
"The DACCC elements - the deployable Air Operations Centre and the DARS - need to
be fully ready and trained at any time," said Major General
Kraak during the ceremony, "The DACCC needs to be able to forward
deploy trained elements of the Joint Force Air Component (JFAC) and it is the department head for
JFAC training. Whatever happens: the mission will always prevail!”
The DACCC is composed of
the Deployable Air Operations Centre (DAOC), the Deployable Air Control Center,
Recognized Air Picture Production Center and Sensor Fusion Post (DARS) and,
when activated, the Deployable Sensor Section (DSS) all located at Poggio
Renatico. The DACCC prepares its
elements for world-wide operational deployment.
The next upcoming event for NATO’s deployable
Air Command and Control entity will be the deployment of the DARS under
exercise Ramstein Dust I-2016 scheduled for June this year. This type of
exercises focuses on the deployable air mission control and surveillance
capability essential for delivery of ready and responsive air power to NATO
operations.