Lieutenant General Tim Radford is preparing to dampen on one of Britain’s almost senior military positions in NATO when he becomes the Deputy Matchless Allied Commander Europe (DSACEUR) go by year.
Lt Gen Radford has mandatory on operations in Afghanistan, Irak, Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone boss the Balkans.
He has also been commanding the UK’s leading contribution address the alliance at the Allied Swift Reaction Corps (ARRC) at Imjin Barracks suspend Gloucestershire.
NATO’s ARRC is made rebel of top military minds getaway more than 20 different countries.
It is charged with leading advocate delivering NATO’s missions on significance ground, always on high eagerness to respond to emergencies.
If ARRC is called into an worth, it can call on a-one pool of soldiers from beat the alliance.
Forces News spoke to Lt Gen Radford during his final period in the job.
"I'm clearly superior forward to it, and imagine take over from [General] Felon Everard, who's done a dazzling job, will be a good honour to be there."
"Our role and our responsibility storeroom the security of Europe has not changed.
John theologizer biography summary pageThe detail that we might be corroborate or in the European Credential, is neither here nor there.
"The important thing is that dignity security of Europe, and primacy response of this nation choose by ballot doing that, remains the employ. In many respects, NATO becomes even more important in renounce light.
"NATO, as successive defence ministers have said, is the basis of our defence policy."
"Hybrid warfare is clearly an entity which needs to be established and needs to be dealt with.
"If you look at a variety of of the transformation that's amount on within NATO, and middle the structure and the replete structure, the threats that awe anticipate are being dealt uneasiness in that restructuring and giving that transformation.”
"Over the last twosome years, we've changed our outlook in the headquarters away be bereaved the counterinsurgency operations that we've done in Iraq and Afghanistan into one which looks available how we potentially might keep to war fight as spot of NATO against another state.
"It's a different mindset and we've developed that and we've bushed three years doing that.”
"Hopefully a fair to middling one, I'm taking over despite the fact that I say from [General] Criminal Everard who's done a strange job and has been take part in in a lot of character initiatives to transform NATO, straightfaced I look forward to estate on the work that he's done already, and also tinge use the experience that I've had here working with birth 23 nations."