NATO maintains standing maritime Immediate Reaction Forces in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The Standing Naval Force Mediterranean (STANAVFORMED) is organized and operates along similar lines to STANAVFORLANT, with destroyers and frigates provided by Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

It is composed of destroyers and frigates contributed by those nations operating naval forces in Allied Command Europe (ACE)

This flag was used for the Commander of the Standing Naval Force Channel (STANAVFORCHAN).

The Netherlands navy uses a similar flag, but with two shades of blue. According to Dutch navy regulations (VVKM 19 bijlage O, p.65), this is the commander ensign of STANAVFORLANT or STANAVFORCHAN.

Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) is a maritime formation, its headquarters is located in Naples. This command originally was established in 1953 as a Principle Subordinate Command under CINCSOUTH.

NATO's Standing Naval Force Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT) is the world's first permanent peacetime multinational naval squadron. STANAVFORLANT was established in January 1968. Flying the NATO flag continuously for over 30 years, some 150,000 men and women have served aboard 600 STANAVFORLANT ships. Each year the Force steams more than 50,000 miles, participating in a series of scheduled NATO and national exercises and making goodwill visits.

The Commanders of the Standing Naval Forces are naval officers from the participating nations, normally of the rank of Commodore in the case of the Standing Naval Force Mediterranean and the rank of Commander for the Standing Naval Force Channel.

The Allied Command Europe Mobile Force - Land (ACE Mobile Force-Land or AMF-L) was a small NATO quick reaction force, headquartered at Heidelberg, Germany, active from 1960 to 2002. It formed part of Allied Command Europe, headquartered at SHAPE at Casteau, Belgium.

The RF(A)S was created to facilitate detailed planning for Reaction Forces Air. The staff of approximately 80 personnel is located at Kalkar, Germany and is headed by a three-star German Air Force general as Director.

The NATO Airborne Early Warning Force was established following a NATO Defence Planning Committee decision in 1978 to acquire a NATO-owned Airborne Early Warning air defence capability to provide air surveillance and command and control for all NATO commands.

The new NATO Response Force (NRF) was formally inaugurated at Brunssum (the Netherlands) on 15 October 2003. The NRF is a tri-service rapid response force with contributions of Spain, France, Germany and U.S.A.

These are the flags of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, in Afghanistan. This force, also known as the International Security Assistance Force 10, is a multinational peace keeping force supervised by NATO. The ISAF is a NATO led security and development mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council in 2001.

  ISAF Flag (Type 2)

In 2003, NATO took command of the 5,000-strong international peace keeping force in the Afghan capital, a historic move that marks the alliance's first operation outside Europe since it was created 54 years ago.

The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international force responsible for establishing a safe and secure environment in Kosovo, the self-proclaimed, independent and partially recognized landlocked country in the Balkans, which has been under United Nations administration since 1999. As of 2007, KFOR consisted of approximately 16,000 troops.

The KFOR troops entered Kosovo in 1999 under a United Nations mandate, because Kosovo was being invaded by military and paramilitary forces from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Nearly one million people had fled Kosovo as refugees. According to some international organizations Kosovo has become a major destination country for women and young girls trafficked into forced prostitution. According to Amnesty International, most women trafficked into Kosovo from abroad are from Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

KFOR Flag 1999		KFOR Flag 2008-2009

Regarding the flags, KFOR has always used the standard NATO flag outdoors at any NATO installation. Until the mid-2008, the one with the two compasses could only be seen indoors in some offices. A slightly different KFOR flag was used between 2008 and mid-2009. The two compasses were removed, and only the white-blue shield placed on it.

Interestingly enough, in 2007, KFOR had already adopted a new badge replacing the former one, but its use on a flag only began somewhere in mid-2009 replacing the previous flag. Since then this flag is the official KFOR flag, but is only used on ceremonial occasions, and is not hoisted on any permanent outdoor flagstaffs except in front of the KFOR Headquarters in Prishtina. Four flagpoles stand in front of the headquarter's building displaying in order, the UN flag, the KFOR flag, the HQ flag, and the Commander's three-star rank flag.

The Flag of the Headquarters of KFOR is blue with a large centered emblem representing the headquarters. In this case, it is a circle with a Kosovo map, an off-centered NATO compass, and a red flag, with three stars, representing the rank of the commander. The inscription around the disk is the current motto of KFOR "Moving Forward" and "Kosovo Force." The Crest of HQ Flag is modified with any change of KFOR commander, because it represents the actual commander of KFOR himself.

NATO troops (called Implementation Forces, with the task to implement the agreement) were part of the United Nations International Forces in Bosnia, deployed according to the Dayton agreement. This flag is interesting because both the dark blue (as in NATO flag), and light blue (as in UN flag) was used. In 1996, this flag with this emblem was reported being used, together with the UN flag and the national flags of the respective countries providing troops.

The Stabilization Force (SFOR) was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR. The SFOR operated under the code names Operation Joint Guard (1996-1998) and Operation Joint Forge (1998-2004).

Allied Rapid Reaction Corps is a multinational NATO Headquarters, currently located in Rheindalen, Germany. But headquarters of ARRC and its intimate supporting elements are going to move to Innsworth, UK in the summer of 2010.

NRDC-ITA is a multinational HQ based in Solbiate Olona (Varese Province), close to Milan, with Italy as the framework nation. It is one of NATO designated corps could be formed as a NRF formation. It is involved in ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

The NATO Rapid Deployable Corps - Turkey, is one of the NATO high readiness force HQ. It is to be prepared to deploy to an area of operation designated by SACEUR, and assume command of assigned units to conduct combined, joint military operations across NATO's entire mission spectrum including NRF and Combined Joint Operations (CJFLCC) in order to support crisis management options or sustain extant operations. It is located in Ayazaga, north from Istanbul.

NATO Deployable Corps-Greece (NDC-GR) is one of the NATO certified Readiness Forces. The C Army Corps (parent HQ of NDC-GR) is a historic Hellenic Army formation. It was first established in 1913 in the city of Ioannina and in the same year moved its HQ to Thessaloniki. Since then it has successfully participated in all national campaigns, including World War I, World War II, etc. In recent times, C Corps units have participated in NATO, United Nations, and European Union peace operations in the Balkans.

Multinational Corps Northeast was founded in 1999 in Szczecin, Poland. There were many factors that contributed to the establishment of a new NATO Corps and its headquarters in Poland. Apart from geographical and military reasons, the Corps was also to serve as a political symbol that would significantly accelerate the integration of the Armed Forces of Poland and other new partners into the multinational NATO structure, thus fostering the stability in Europe.

Eurocorps is a multinational army corps within the framework of the Western European Union common defence initiatives. Eurocorps comprises approximately 1,000 soldiers stationed in Strasbourg and up to 60,000 troops pledged for deployment in EU or NATO rapid-response missions. The nucleus of the force is the Franco-German Brigade established in 1987. Headquartered in Strasbourg, France, the force was established in 1992 and declared operational in 1995, though it draws from European defence initiatives as far back as the 1960s.

The 1st German-Netherlands Corps is a multinational formation with 12 participating countries. The leading participants are the German and Dutch armies. The Corps headquarters, which developed partly out of the I Corps of the Bundeswehr, is located in Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany).

The Rapid Deployable Spanish Corps HQ based on the Spanish Corps HQ in Valencia (Spain), is kept in a high state of readiness and availability, one of the so-called High Readiness Forces (HRF) ready to react on short notice. The Spanish Rapid Deployable Corps is actually based in Bétera near to Valencia and was first activated at the beginning of the year 2000. The Full operational capability has achieved in November of 2002.

The Headquarters Allied Forces North Europe was established in 1994 in the same location where Vikings defended themselves against aggressors hundreds of years earlier. Following numerous efforts to reshape NATO's command structure, in 2000, the Command was renamed the Joint Command North (JCN) to reflect its new role as a third level headquarters, subordinate to Allied Forces North Europe (AFNORTH) in Brunssum, the Netherlands.

The Joint Force Training Center (JFTC) is NATO's focal point for tactical level training and transformation. JFTC is part of Allied Command Transformation's (ACT) training network together with the Joint Warfare Center (JWC) in Norway and the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Center (JALLC) in Portugal.

The NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Center was established in 2007 to lead the efforts of NATO to improve the Alliance's capability to conduct interdiction operations at sea.

The NATO Undersea Research Center (NURC), based in La Spezia, Italy, is a research organization under NATO's Allied Command Transformation, which is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia. NURC conducts research and develops products to support NATO maritime operations and to support the continuous improvement of NATO military capabilities. Its focus is on the undersea domain and on solutions to maritime security problems. NURC maintains a strong reputation for bringing the best and brightest researchers together through rotational scientific staffing and through extensive partnering with NATO member nations. NURC also collaborates with other NATO organizations and with institutions from the 28 NATO member nations, such as universities and research centers.

NURC was formerly known as the SACLANT ASW Research Center from 1959 to 1986 and as the SACLANT Undersea Research Center from 1987 to 2003. The name change reflected a change in role, from a research center focused primarily on antisubmarine warfare (ASW) to a broadening emphasis on underwater research. NURC’s role continues to expand and evolve. New areas of research include the development of tools and processes to counter new threats in the maritime environment from rogue nations or radical individuals.

The NATO School is located in Oberammergau, Germany. It is NATO's primary training and education Center on the operational level, the only one of its kind in the world. The school started with two courses in 1953 and now offers over 90 different courses to Alliance members and partners on subjects related to NATO's policies, strategies, missions and operations.

The Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Center (JALLC) is NATO's lead agency for the analysis of operations, exercises, training and experiments, and for the collection and communication of lessons learned. JALLC deploys teams worldwide to support NATO, analysing all aspects of the Alliance's work at the operational and strategic levels. JALLC's base in Monsanto, near Lisbon in Portugal. It is a subordinated agency of Joint Warfare Center - JWC.

NATO Air Command and Control System Management Agency (NACMA) is an independent NATO Agency whose principal task is to conduct the central planning, system engineering, implementation and configuration management for the NATO Air Command and Control System (ACCS) Program. The Program is intended to replace the existing air defence systems in NATO Europe, with a single system which, at the tactical level, will provide the capability to plan, task and execute defensive, offensive and support air operations.

The NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency, (NCSA) is a service provider to its NATO and national customers. Wherever NATO deploys on operations or exercises, NCSA is there, providing communication and information systems (CIS) services in support of the mission. Equally important, NCSA supports NATO's ten major headquarters in Europe, North America, and Asia.

NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency is NATO's principal logistics support management agency. It was established in 1958.

The NATO Programming Center (NPC) is responsible for system support and maintenance of NATO's Air Command and Control Systems. Amongst these systems is also the NATO Air Command and Control System ACCS. Its mission is to provide efficient and effective system and advisory support to ensure maximum operational capability of the Air Command and Control (C2) assets entrusted to the NPC. In the past the NPC mission was limited to software maintenance of in-service NATO Air C2 systems, it was expanded in 2006 to permit provision of all activities required for system support for these systems. This includes the following areas: system engineering, obsolescence management, Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) software management and technical training.

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council was a political, advisory, consultative body of NATO members and non-NATO countries that met in 2002 in Prague, where expansion of NATO was discussed.