Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Command Operations has at its disposal standing forces such as: Airlift support for SACEUR's travels is provided by the USAF's 309th Airlift Squadron at Chièvres Air Base, Belgium. In 2012 and 2013, NATO underwent a reorganization of the military command, and the land component commands at Heidelberg and Madrid were deactivated, the maritime component command at Naples was closed and the air component command at Izmir also shut down. Today Allied Command Operations (ACO) is one of the two strategic commands of NATO (the other being Allied Command Transformation (ACT). Under this structure, there are two joint force operational headquarters
Dieter Stöckmann Staff and Deputy Commander at the Headquarters of the Allied Land Forces Central Europe in Heidelberg. In 1996, now with the rank of a General, he became Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe (CINCCENT) and the Chief of Staff of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) on 1 April 1998. On 17 September 2001 Stöckmann was promoted to Deputy Commander, Supreme Allied Command Europe, a position he held until his retirement on 30 September 2002. General (ret.) Stöckmann is a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation (Berlin, Copenhagen, Prague, Sydney and Toronto) - a respected foundation