Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Totally Explained

Everything about Allied Command Operations totally explained

Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the central command of NATO military forces. It is located at Casteau, north of the Belgian city of Mons.
From 1951 SHAPE was the headquarters of operational forces in the European theatre (Allied Command Europe, ACE), but since 2003 SHAPE has been the headquarters of Allied Command Operations (ACO) controlling all allied operations worldwide. The former Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT) headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, was simultaneously converted into the headquarters for the new Allied Command Transformation (ACT) responsible for transformation and training of NATO forces. SHAPE retained its traditional name with reference to Europe for legal reasons although the geographical scope of its activities was extended in 2003. The commanding officer of Allied Command Operations has also retained the title "Supreme Allied Commander Europe" (SACEUR), and continues to be a U.S. four-star general who also serves as Commander, U.S. European Command. Airlift support for the travels of the SACEUR are provided by the 309th Airlift Squadron at Chièvres Air Base, Belgium.
The main (political) headquarters of NATO is located in the city of Brussels about 80 km (50 miles) from SHAPE.

Structure

Allied Command Operations (ACO) is one of the two supreme commands of NATO (the other being Allied Command Transformation, ACT).
There are three main headquarters under Allied Command Operations:

Allied Command Operations is also responsible for most of the NATO Force Structure's organisations, six "Rapidly Deployable Corps Headquarters" and a naval headquarters:

Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) HQ, in Rheindahlen, Germany

Eurocorps HQ, in Strasbourg, France

Rapid Deployable Italian Corps, in Milan, Italy

Rapid Deployable Turkish Corps HQ/III Corps, in Istanbul, Turkey

Rapid Deployable German-Netherlands Corps HQ, in Münster, Germany

Rapid Deployable Spanish Corps HQ, in Valencia, Spain

Naval Striking and Support Force NATO (STRIKFORNATO), Gaeta, Italy (lead nation USA, commanded by Commander United States Sixth Fleet) As more capable rapid reaction forces were established, earlier 'fire brigades,' including the Allied Command Europe (ACE) Mobile Force - Land (AMF(L), were disbanded; AMF(L) was disbanded on 30 or 31 October 2002.
In addition to this Allied Command Operations has at its disposal standing forces such as:

The Reaction Forces (Air) Staff - RF(A)S, in Kalkar, Germany

NATO Airborne Early Warning Force (NAEWF)

Immediate Reaction Forces (Maritime)

Standing NRF Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1)

Standing NRF Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2)

Standing NRF Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1)

Standing NRF Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) ACO is likely to also take command at some point of the NATO Strategic Airlift Capability, whose first C-17 Globemaster IIIs will be delivered in mid 2008. It coordinates airlift and sealift through the multinational Movement Coordination Centre Europe, at Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands.

History

An integrated military structure for NATO was first established after the Korean War raised questions over the level of Europe's defences. Selecting the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) was easy, since everyone’s first choice was the popular and respected U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had led allied forces in Europe during World War II. On December 19, 1950 the North Atlantic Council announced the appointment of General Eisenhower as the first SACEUR.
   General Eisenhower arrived in Paris on January 1, 1951 and quickly set to work with a small multi-national planning group to devise a structure for the new command, Allied Command Europe (ACE) and its new headquarters, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). The Planning Group worked in the Hotel Astoria in central Paris while construction of a permanent facility began at Rocquencourt, just outside the city.
   The SHAPE planners benefited greatly from the existing plans, headquarters and personnel of the Western European Union (WEU) a European defence and security organization (NATO’s European predecessor, established in 1948 on the basis of the Treaty of Brussels), which were incorporated into ACE, so within a few months the basic plans for ACE were ready.
   On April 2, 1951 General Eisenhower signed the activation order for Allied Command Europe and its headquarters at SHAPE. On the same day ACE’s subordinate headquarters in Northern and Central Europe were activated, with the Southern Region following in June. By 1954 ACE's forces consisted of Allied Forces Northern Europe, at Oslo, Allied Forces Central Europe (Fontainebleau), Allied Forces Southern Europe (Paris/Naples) and Allied Forces Mediterranean at Malta. From July 1951-1967 SHAPE was situated in France, at Rocquencourt, west of Paris, in Camp Voluceau, which are the premises that are currently occupied by INRIA. It was then decided that the motto of SHAPE should be Vigilia Pretium Libertatis, Latin for "The Price of Freedom is Vigilance"

Relocation to Belgium

One of the most significant events in the history of Allied Command Europe (ACE) was France’s withdrawal from NATO’s integrated military structure. This move forced SHAPE and several other ACE headquarters to leave French territory. The divisiveness between France and NATO’s military structure had been brewing for a number of years, as successive French governments had become increasingly incensed with what they perceived to be Anglo-American domination of the command structure and insufficient French influence throughout the command.
   In December 1965, French President Charles de Gaulle had just been elected for the second time and France had acquired its own nuclear capability. De Gaulle's efforts to establish a Franco-British–American Security Directorate and gain some French influence over US nuclear weapons based in France had failed, and he hoped to gain a more independent role for France in order to maximise its future global influence and status.
   President de Gaulle also disagreed with the United States’ intention to replace the strategy of the so-called Massive Retaliation with Flexible Response because he believed that this meant a weakening of the US commitment to defend Europe with nuclear weapons.
   As he became increasingly critical of the developments in NATO, de Gaulle described the military integration practised at SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters as obsolete and said that it was designed to ensure French subordination to US policy.
   In February 1966 President de Gaulle stated that the changed world order had "stripped NATO of its justification" for military integration and that France was therefore justified in re-asserting her sovereignty over French territory.
   Consequently, all allied forces within France’s borders would have to come under French control by April 1969. Soon afterward, France stated that it was withdrawing from the NATO military structure and that the NATO Headquarters, the NATO Defence College, SHAPE and its subordinate headquarters like the Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT), must leave French territory by April 1967. The NATO Headquarters was based in Paris, in the Palais de l'OTAN, currently occupied by the Université Paris-Dauphine. The Defence College was also based in Paris. AFCENT was based in Fontainebleau.
   The allies were unsuccessful in their efforts to persuade the French government to reconsider, and France then withdrew the vast majority of its military personnel from NATO military headquarters in July 1966.
   The other Allies moved quickly to find new hosts for the headquarters that would have to leave France, and they decided to move NATO’s political headquarters from French territory as well. Rome was selected to host the NATO Defence College. Brunssum in the Netherlands was selected to host AFCENT, and Belgium became the host nation for both NATO and SHAPE. SACEUR Lemnitzer had hoped that SHAPE could be located near to NATO Headquarters, as had been the case in Paris, but the Belgian authorities decided that SHAPE should be located at least 50 kilometres from Brussels, NATO’s new location, because SHAPE was a major wartime military target.
   They also said that SHAPE had to be placed on land already owned by the government in order to limit costs and construction time. The Belgian government then offered Camp Casteau, a 2 km² Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment.
   To overcome SHAPE’s objections about the distance from Brussels, the Belgian government agreed to build a high-speed motorway connecting Mons and Brussels. In September 1966 NATO agreed that Belgium should host SHAPE at Casteau.
   Six and a half months remained before the French deadline for SHAPE to leave France would expire. A massive seven-day-a-week building programme began, co-ordinated between the Belgian central and local authorities, the building consortium and SHAPE. Highest priority was given to building command and control facilities.
   SHAPE closed its facility at Rocquencourt near Paris on 30 March 1967, and the next day held a ceremony to mark the opening of the new headquarters at Casteau. SACEUR Lemnitzer called the construction effort "a miracle of achievement" and praised the Belgian authorities and workmen for their efforts to ensure that SHAPE had a new headquarters in a remarkably short time.

The 1970s and After

The headquarters' new home in Mons, Belgium, was the center of international attention from time to time as new Supreme Allied Commanders came and went, with one of the more notable being General Alexander M. Haig, Jr. Haig, who had retired from military service in order to serve as White House Chief of Staff for President Richard M. Nixon during the depths of the Watergate crisis, was abruptly installed as SACEUR after Watergate's denouement. Haig's successor, General Bernard Rogers, became somewhat of an institution in Europe as the former U.S. Army chief of staff occupied the office for nearly eight years; a brief outcry arose from the other NATO capitals when Rogers was slated for retirement by the U.S. administration in 1987.
   An early retirement would once again disrupt the Mons headquarters in 2000 as General Wesley Clark was shunted aside in favor of Air Force general Joseph Ralston. Although the move was publicly characterized as a purely administrative move necessitated by Clark's approaching retirement and the lack of an open four-star slot for the highly respected Ralston [areality which would have compelled him to either accept a temporary demotion to two-star rank or retire from the service], Clark's relief--leaked to the press before he was personally informed--has been often seen as a slap at the general on the part of a Pentagon leadership that had been very much at odds with him during the Kosovo war the previous spring.
   In 2003, a French flag was set up in the SHAPE headquarters in Mons following the return, after almost forty years, of French military officers to the HQ . 15 French military officers, including General Jean-Jacques Bart, work there, on a total amount of 1,100 persons || British Army || October 2007 || incumbent |}

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