About 900 personnel from 16 nations, including the United States, are taking part in NATO exercise Allied Warrior ’04, which started Monday.

The command post-type exercise — which doesn’t involve the actual deployment of troops, aircraft or ships — will run through Nov. 24 in Amersfoort, Ede and Harskamp in the Netherlands, and in Verona and Naples, Italy.

Allied Warrior ’04 is designed to allow participants to practice procedures for planning and mounting an initial deployment of a NATO joint task force.

According to a news release about the exercise, Allied Warrior ’04 will also prepare the 1 German/Netherlands Corps for its assumption of the Combined Joint Force Land Component Command in January 2005.

The exercise will also be conducted in a simulated nuclear, biological, and chemical threat environment, with the support of NATO’s Multinational CBR Defense Battalion and NBC-Joint Assessment Team.

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