First time in history a non-NATO country military unit successfully went through the certification process as a SOF unit and will join the NRF (NATO Response Force), reports the Ukrainian Military Portal.

This unit is the 140th SOF Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, its personnel has passed the exams to their NATO colleagues in Lithuania.

The NRF was established during NATO’s November summit of 2002 in Prague to replace Allied Command Europe Mobile Force. First talks on oncoming NATO mobile force reorganization took place in Warsaw in August 2002 at Donald Rumsfeld’s (at the time the US Secretary of Defense) initiative.

The NRF includes land, air, maritime and special operations components ready for evacuation or crisis response operations around the globe within 5 days. In case of large-scale conflict or war the NRF is supposed to deter the enemy’s attack for a 30 days period before the main forces arrival. The decision to deploy the NRF is taken by the North Atlantic Council. The NRF land component is capable of brigade-sized forced entry operations. Maritime Task Force comprises a carrier, land and amphibious groups. Air Component is capable of 200 sorties per day. The NRF operations may include SOF groups.

The US servicemen authorized to sign the unit certification report were taking pictures of the historical moment.