NATO members Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia, along with non-member Austria, have signed a letter of intent to establish a five-country Regional Special Operations Component Command (R-SOCC) on Wednesday, which is expected to improve the capabilities of their special forces.

The four NATO allies, led by Hungary, and in partnership with Austria, will work together to form a deployable R-SOCC for small-scale joint special forces operations, NATO said in a press release.

The letter of intent was signed on Wednesday, on the margins of a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.

On behalf of Croatia, the letter was signed by Assistant Defence Minister Petar Mihatov, who stood in for Minister Damir Krsticevic. Krsticevic did not attend the meeting himself because of a parliamentary debate on the failed purchase of F-16 Barak fighter jets from Israel scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

“This command will dramatically increase the ability of these five nations to effectively employ their special forces. The non-permanent structure of the R-SOCC enables each participant to use its own contributions separately, while benefiting from the integrated R-SOCC structure, once activated for a deployment,” NATO said on Wednesday.

The new multi-national command will be developed in line with NATO standards, leveraging the expertise of NATO’s Special Operations Headquarters in Mons, Belgium. While primarily intended for NATO and EU operations, the command would also be able to participate in other multilateral missions, exercises or trainings.

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