Squadron Leader Tony O'Neill

Chief Air Transport Movement Coordination Centre Europe

The evolution of the MCCE began when NATO and the EU identified a lack of assured strategic lift capacity and of coordination of strategic lift assets. Willing nations worked together to generate capacity, through projects like SALIS and SAC in the field of airlift, and MSSC in the field of sealift. To improve coordination, willing nations established multinational coordination centres like the European Airlift Centre (EAC) and the Sealift Coordination Centre (SCC), that merged into the MCCE in July 2007. These solutions to mitigate the shortfalls are mutually reinforcing, with an important role for the MCCE in the coordination of the capacity that is generated by the SALIS and the MSSC, and also for the surplus capacity from SAC and EATC. The MCCE Mission is to coordinate the lift and Air-to-Air Refuelling (AAR) capabilities of its’ 28 Member Nations in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness by optimising synergies. The MCCE has the following principal roles: To coordinate Participants’ requests to support operational and training deployments and routine movements. To coordinate Participants’ unilateral, multilateral and multinational movements in support of operations, including Crisis Management Operations and Disaster Relief Operations. Be prepared to provide coordination support to EU, NATO or UN operations. To identify and highlight any potential to optimise Participants’ use of Air Transport (AT), AAR, Sealift (SL) and Inland Surface Transport (IST). Within the MCCE my AT Cell has the responsibility to coordinate airlift requests by member nations using spare capacity on other nations national or chartered airlift assets; this can be part load, dedicated aircraft or a combination of the two. The payment of the airlift is usually through the Cashless Exchange mechanism of the Air Transport, Air to Air Refuelling and other Exchanges of Services (ATARES) system; however, airlift can also be arranged through an Acquisition Cross Servicing Agreement (ACSA) agreement for from the USA or as a bi-lateral agreement between nations in cash. There is also the possibility for authorised non member organisations such as NATO and EU to utilise the system via a sponsor nation.