Coalition Building While Multiplying Transportation Capabilities
L
ocated in the Netherlands, in the thriving metropolis of Eindhoven, amongst industrial complexes and sparse thickets, lies the headquarters for the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE). Here, in a room awash with differing camo patterns, along with a smattering of plain-clothed civilians, is where the bulk of the MCCE activities take place. The individuals who work in this room are empowered to match transportation lift capabilities against movement requirements. To a U.S. Army transporter, booking transportation is business as usual, but this is anything but usual. The MCCE consists of 28 member nations (including the U.S. military) and has 32 national posts manned at the small headquarters. Two embedded U.S. military representatives spearhead the U.S. MCCE efforts in
By Aubrey Irvin and Rhonda Pitt
the European theater. This unique and international transportationfocused organization coordinates and facilitates movement requirements between partner nations by matching lift capability. In the late 1990s, the United Nations and NATO identified a deficiency of strategic lift capacity and coordination of strategic lift assets. To address this issue, nations worked in concert to resolve the shortfalls and established the European Airlift Center (EAC) and the Sealift Coordination Center (SCC). In July 2007, these entities merged to form what is now known as the MCCE. The U.S. joined the MCCE on June 27, 2008. The MCCE vision is to “be a world-class center of expertise in the international multimodal defense
movement arena, coordinating members’ strategic movement requirements and offers in the most effective and efficient manner.” The MCCE, manned 24/7, aims to foster international cooperation and coordination, to facilitate membernation strategic movement goals by utilizing air, land, and sea transport assets owned or contracted by national militaries of the members or supported agencies. In 2017, United States European Command (USEUCOM) appointed U.S. Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) as the lead for accession to the Surface Exchange of Services (SEOS) program. Through interagency cooperation between USAREUR-AF, the MCCE, and USEUCOM, USEUCOM’s legal branch submitted a legislative proposal for SEOS participation to
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