Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe government offered Camp Casteau, a 2 km² Belgian Army summer training camp near Mons, which was an area in serious need of additional economic investment. In September 1966, NATO agreed that Belgium should host SHAPE at Casteau. 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. The drawdown of the British Mediterranean Fleet, the military difficulties of the politically decided command structure, and the withdrawal of the French from the military command structure forced a rearrangement of the command arrangements
Allied Air Forces Central Europe Air Force, under General Dean C. Strother (USAF), comprised the Twelfth Air Force, French 1er Air Division, and the Canadian No. 1 Air Division RCAF. On 28 June 1974 Headquarters Allied Air Forces Central Europe (AAFCE) was re-established as an independent headquarters at Ramstein Air Base, Germany as one of three principal subordinate command under Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT). Its task was to provide central direction and control for NATO air forces in the European Central Region. Two existing headquarters, Second Allied Tactical Air Force (2 ATAF), based at RAF Rheindahlen, which covered the northern part of the region,