Ministers in June 2003. Dual headquarters were created in Naples, Italy and Brunssum, Netherlands; command rotates annually between them. In 2004 and 2005, NRF units were activated for a small number of civilian missions, including to provide security at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the Afghan presidential elections, as well as to provide humanitarian assistance in the United States after Hurricane Katrina and in Pakistan after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. Due to equipment shortages, unfulfilled troop commitments and falling political support among member countries, the size of the NRF was cut in half in 2007 and not used again until 2022. During the 2014 Wales summit following the Crimean crisis, NATO leaders agreed to reorganize the NRF's core troops into a "spearhead force" known as a "Very High Readiness Joint Task Force" (VJTF) designed to be able to deploy at 48 hours notice, although the actual level of readiness was generally several weeks. It was also for the first time linked explicitly to NATO's Article 5 obligations. Altogether, it amounted to around 30,000 troops. For most of its existence, the lack of enthusiasm of NATO's member states for the NRF resulted in chronic equipment and personnel shortages. It was sometimes branded a wasteful failure and an insignificant force next to NATO's more established units. Nevertheless, some military scholars argue that it played a significant role in modernizing European militaries as their troops rotated through it. 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine As Russian troops built up around Ukraine in early 2022, various units attached to the NRF were alerted or deployed. On 11 February 2022, a U.S. Army brigade combat team of about 4,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division was ordered to Poland, while a Stryker squadron (battalion-sized cavalry unit) was sent from Vilseck's Rose Barracks to Romania. On 16 February 2022, 8,500 troops in some of the units that make up the U.S. contribution to the NRF were put on alert for possible rotational deployment to EUCOM's area of responsibility. As of 25 February 2022 seven thousand soldiers of the 8500-troop tranche, including the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team/3rd Infantry Division (1st ABCT/3rd ID —4700 troops, plus support units) deployed to Germany, initially. For the first time in decades, three US heavy brigades are deploying to EUCOM concurrently —(from the 1ABCT/3rd ID, the 1ABCT/1st ID, and an IBCT/82nd AB, all to be deployed as needed for the