1. Michael Adubato, SHAPE Language Testing Centre
SHAPE? ACO? ???
Michael Adubato, SHAPE Language Testing Centre
SHAPE, Belgium
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2. SHAPE-Allied Command Operations
Everything you wanted to know about SHAPE but…
Were afraid to ask
Didn’t know who to ask
Forgot that you wanted to know something about SHAPE!
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3. What is SHAPE?
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4. Allied Command Operations Allied Command Transformation
NATO Organization
NATO Headquarters
NAC
Military Committee
Committees
Committees
Other
Committees
Secretary General
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
International Staff
Chairman
Military Committee
Admiral Di Paola
International
Military Staff
Strategic Commands
To understand NATO, ACO, and what we do one must first appreciate the Alliance’s basic organization.
Clearly known to you is the Secretary General, Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Located at Brussels he chairs the North Atlantic Council (NAC) and the Defence Planning Committee (DPC) in which NATO nations are represented by Permanent Representatives or – when meetings at higher level take place – by Foreign or Defense Ministers or even Heads of Government / Heads of States. An INTERNATIOANL STAFF and more than 300 committees assist the Council in its work. The Secretary General’s function is a political one taking into account the various wishes and desires of the Alliance’s nations.
The Military Committee, also located at NATO HQ in Brussels and representing the Chiefs of Defense of the NATO nations, has responsibility for transitioning these political considerations and guidance into military guidance. It also provides military advice for consideration by the NAC. The Military Committee and its chairman, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, are assisted by an INTERNATIONAL MILITARY STAFF (IMS).
One level below there are two strategic commands: ALLIED COMMAND OPERATIONS, located here at Mons is led by Admiral Jim Stavridis who is also dual-roled as the Commander US European Command.
ALLIED COMMAND TRANSFORMATION, located at Norfolk / VA., U.S.A. is led by General Stephane Abrial.
Allied Command Operations
Allied Command Transformation
SACEUR Admiral Jim Stavridis
SACT General Stephane Abrial
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5. NATO’s Strategic Commands
Provides military advice to NATO’s political and military leadership
Develops military policy within the framework of NATO
Plans for future NATO operations including Force Generation
Directs and Monitors ongoing NATO operations
The two Strategic Commands just mentioned evolved from the Cold War structure.
Formerly known as Allied Command Atlantic and Allied Command Europe they had responsibility for operational coverage of the Atlantic and of Europe respectively.
Recognition that the emerging international security environment - and budgetary constraints - demanded a different approach to defense, led to NATO transformation and this new bi-strategic command structure.
The division reflects not geographical but functional differences. Allied Command Operations now takes on responsibility for all NATO operations, while Allied Command Transformation takes on primary responsibility for transformational issues and improvements in NATO’s military capabilities.
Lead agency for transformation
Conducts analysis
Explores concepts and promotes doctrine
Manages “Transformation” programme
Training and education
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6. SHAPE – Mons, Belgium
Develops military policy within the framework of NATO
Provides military advice to the NATO’s political and military leadership at Brussels
Plans for future NATO operations including force generation
Directs and monitors ongoing NATO operations
SHAPE is an acronym (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) and belongs to the distant past and nowadays refers to:
-the name of the headquarters at the strategic level for Allied Command Operations.
-and - the name of an international military base camp near the Belgian town of Mons or Bergen as it is called in Flemish. This is reflected in the post code B-7010 SHAPE.
Now for a quick look at our Headquarters and the main work done at SHAPE at the strategic level which is as follows [Click]:
To provide some context to our briefing today, you should know that SHAPE develops military policy within the framework of NATO
SHAPE also provides military advice to our military and political leadership in Brussels
Planning for operations and ensuring these are properly resourced are key deliverables for which SHAPE is responsible
Finally, SHAPE directs and monitors ongoing NATO operations through its various subordinate headquarters
Story about FLAGS
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7. Campus B-7010 SHAPE
ALLIED COMMAND OPERATIONS (ACO) SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED POWERS EUROPE (SHAPE)
National Military Representatives (NMR)/ National Support Elements (NSE)
EU Cell at SHAPE (EUCS) (organizational element of the EU Military Staff as a permanent Liaison to SHAPE)
EU Staff Group (EUSG) (supporting DSACEUR in his role as Commander EU Operation ALTHEA in BIH)
NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force Command (NAEW&C FC)
Allied Command Transformation, Staff Element Europe (ACT SEE)
NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency (NCSA)
NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre (NSCC)
SHAPE International School (SIS) with currently 11 national departments
Today SHAPE is a really international place, being home of not only ACO HQ but also of other international and national organizations.
Here you see the main actors.
Some of them are directly connected to ACO HQ - others are located at SHAPE because of the office space available and to facilitate their work due to its close location to NATO HQ in Brussels.
SHAPE is not only a NATO HQ but can also serve as a European Union Operational HQ which provides access to NATO capabilities and facilities for EU-led operations. At present, SHAPE provides advice, planning, as well as command and control capabilities for EU Operation ALTHEA in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Also, the Allied Command Transformation Staff Element in Europe, the direct link to NATO’s other Strategic Command is located here.
It is unthinkable to forget about the NATO Communication and Information Systems Services Agency, not to mention the command for the NATO Airborne Early Warning Fleet.
And last but not least, NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre which provides a direct link between Alliance SOF and SACEUR with timely, effective advice in support of the planning and execution of operations.
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8. SHAPE: facts and figures
Let me give you some facts and figures concerning the HQ.
SHAPE was activated at the Hotel Astoria in Paris in April Then President Charles de Gaulle pulled out of NATO’s military command in 1966, arguing he had to preserve French independence in world affairs.
In March 1967 SHAPE was moved to Mons in BELGIUM.
There are around 4000 posts within the international organisations at SHAPE filled by people from 48 Nations (28 of them are NATO members, 17 PfP Partners and 2 Mediterranean ).
Additionally about people are working at the national staffs and support elements. Altogether the SHAPE community is made up of around people including the family members and local employees.
According to our calculations based on the Economic Impact Statement 2008, we create indirectly about jobs in a local population just by the simple presence of the base.
The area is about 200 ha and comprises of staff buildings, support facilities, school buildings, shopping areas, sports, morale and welfare facilities as well as 2 housing areas with 600 residential buildings of different sizes.
SHAPE is, without a doubt, one of the most importantNATO’s military bases. But there is hardly another place where you can experience this particular interaction between cultures of separate nations and the family and military ways of living.
Example: SIS ca 2400 students, 11 school units, kindergarten, 8 national education programmes, 6 curricular languages.
You will learn more about this unique place during a guided tour.
/PHOTO/ Her Royal Highness Princess Anne of The United Kingdom escorted by SACEUR General Rogers and Deputy SACEUR Sir Edward Burgess, speaking to children from SHAPE International School, 19 June 1989.
HQ SHAPE
April 2, 1951 SHAPE was activated at the Hotel Astoria, Paris, FRA. In Summer 1951 the HQ moved to its new locations in Rocquencourt, west of Paris. In March 1967 SHAPE moved to Mons, BEL.
ACO comprises of around posts.
Campus B-7010 SHAPE
The SHAPE area is about 200 ha and comprises of staff buildings, support facilities, school buildings, shopping areas, sports, moral and welfare facilities as well as 2 housing areas with 600 residential buildings of different size.
More than military and civilian personnel from currently 48 Nations working at SHAPE. People from:
28 NATO Member Countries
17 Partnership for Peace Members
2 Mediterranean Dialog Country (Egypt, Morocco)
1 Contact Country (Australia)
The whole SHAPE Community (personnel & dependents) consists currently of about 8,200 people.
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9. SHAPE – ‘village’
“Rendezvous”
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10. SHAPE – ‘village’ The SHAPE Club
“Silver spoon” self-service restaurant
Coffer
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11. SHAPE – ‘village’ “Pizza Bowl” Sport equipment centre
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12. SHAPE – ‘village’
Sport areas
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13. SHAPE – ‘village’
Entertaiment Centre
Cinema
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14. SHAPE – ‘village’
“Auto Skills Centre”

15. SHAPE – ‘village’ Community Activity Centre Library and Trips & Tours
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16. SHAPE – ‘village’
Youth Activities Centre
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17. SHAPE – ‘village’ Kindergarten / pre-school playgroup
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18. SHAPE – ‘village’
“Arts & Crafts”
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19. ACO Focus Plan & execute combined, joint & effects based operations.
Address future multidimensional threats.
Evolve and improve through transformation.
Develop relationships with partners and contact countries.
While there are many tasks and responsibilities taken on by the staff at SHAPE, our efforts are clearly focused [Click]:
Support to Operations, particularly in Afghanistan, is SACEUR’s top concern. This encompasses both the execution of current and planning for future operations, including EU Operations conducted under the provisions of NATO-EU arrangements (Berlin Plus)
Respond to new and unresolved security issues such as terrorism, energy security, Cyber Defense, crisis management
Transformation is considered key to effectiveness of ACO. This includes – amongst other things - the development and sustainment of the NRF as a tangible product of NATO transformation and
Finally spreading NATO’s common values and security vision for the Euro-Atlantic area is our investment into the Alliance future and considered imperative to the overall Alliance success
Admiral J. Stavridis
SACEUR
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20. ACO HQ Structure NATO UNCLASSIFIED ACT
DCOS Military Cooperation
DCOS Support
DCOS Force Readiness
DCOS Capabilities Plans / Policy
DCOS Operations / Intelligence
Ops/SOC
Ops Spt
Intel
Ops
CIMIC
Strat Plans
Readiness
Rqmt
Strat Policy
WMD
OPD
Comm & Info Sys
CapMngt
Logistics
Manpower
Medical
Finance
Progr
Impl
Mil Coop
Dev
Director of Management
Headquarters Support Group
SACEUR
DSACEUR
COS
Mil Coop Ops Spt
SPECIAL STAFF
SACEUR Representative to MC (at NATO HQ)
International Affairs Advisor
Legal Advisor
Financial Controller
Medical Advisor
ACO Organization, Development & Audit (ODA)
Public Affairs Office
Historical Office
Director Special Operations Office
Chief Strategic Communications
ACO Provost Marshal
Nat’l Military Representatives
ACT
And this is the current structure of SHAPE …valid as of the 1 of August 2010.
Without going into details we intend to stand up five divisions with their subordinate directorates.
At the top you can see the senior posts: SACEUR, his Deputy and Chief of the Staff. These three posts are permanently assigned to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany respectively.
The Chief of Staff runs the staff here at SHAPE, allowing SACEUR and his deputy to command and his deputies provide leadership and direction to their respective assigned Divisions.
Special staff elements are shown in the box at the left of the slide.
Of importance is that all 28 NATO member Nations are represented at SHAPE with a National Military Representative acting as the direct interface to the respective Nations CHOD’s.
Draw attention to DCOS Military Cooperation.
ACO and ACT play a key role in supporting:
NATO partnerships
Participation in NATO operations
Military events that foster improved interoperability.
Military Cooperation Div established in September to provide improved unity of effort and coordination for ACO/ACT partner programs
Co-located with representatives from all PfP nations and some MD / ICI / Contact nations.
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21. SHAPE Command Group Admiral James STAVRIDIS US Navy 02 July 2009
Supreme Allied Commander
Europe (SACEUR)
Deputy Supreme Allied
Commander Europe (DSACEUR)
SHAPE Chief of Staff
(COS)
Here you see the current SACEUR, DSACEUR and COS.
Supreme Allied Commander Europe is dual-hatted as the Commander of all US forces in Europe and DSACEUR is at the same time European Union Operational Commander.
Admiral James STAVRIDIS
US Navy
02 July 2009
“dual-hatted” as
COMMANDER US European Command
GENERAL Sir Alexander Richard David SHIRREFF
British Army
04 March 2011
“dual-hatted” as
OPERATIONAL COMMANDER EU Operation ALTHEA
GENERAL Manfred LANGE
German Air Force
23 September 2010
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22. Allied Command Operations
ACO Command Structure
NATO does not maintain standing forces with the exception of AWACS, Communication and Information units.
It does include COMMAND AND CONTROL HQ, like SHAPE which focus its attention at Strategic level,
and then the Joint Force Commands in the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal at the operational level
together with their associated Air, Land and Maritime component commands at the tactical level .
These component commands can be allocated to operations under another commander, if necessery.
Allied Command Operations
Mons/BEL
Joint Forces Command
Brunssum/ NLD
Naples/ITA
Component Command
Air Ramstein/DEU
Maritime
Northwood/GBR
Land
Heidelberg/DEU
Madrid/ESP
Air
Izmir/TUR
Combined Air
Operation Centre
Udem/DEU
Poggio Renatico/ITA
Larissa/GRC
Deployable
Poggio Rentaico/ITA
Finderup/DNK
Joint Headquarters
Lisbon/ PRT
Strategic level
Operational level
Tactical or Component level
ca posts in ACO
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23. NATO Command Structure (NCS) Reform
C&I Agency
SHAPE
ACT
950
Mons/Various
Mons
Norfolk/Various
AJHQ
850
AJHQ
850
Brunssum
Naples
MARITIME
COMD HQ
Izmir
LAND COMD HQ
CIS GROUP
300
350
Northwood
1300
AIR
COMD HQ
Let's turn to the future ACO structure. The departure point is the structure recommended by the Senior Officials Group (SOG) Report in October This remains the reference point both in terms of HQs but also in terms of manning.
This model, with an initial manpower total of 8,950, provides: a strategic command for operations – including two deployable joint headquarters, both able to provide command and control for an MJO (Major Joint Operation), as well as static maritime and air commands, each of which can provide the requisite command and control for a maritime-heavy and air-heavy SJO (Small Joint Operation) respectively. It also provides two CAOCs Deployable, one DARS, plus an integral communications and information systems capability – the NATO CIS Group - to support the functions of the NATO Command Structure, although there is still much negotiation amongst the nations on the way that NATO CIS will be organised, managed and commanded in the future; and, for peacetime establishment counting purposes only, the total figure of 8950 includes the current NATO Airborne Early Warning and future Alliance Ground Surveillance entities. This model implies that, to meet NATO’s Level of Ambition, the NATO Force Structure needs to be able to provide the initial deployed command and control capability for four Small Joint Operations; likely, this C2 capability this will be found from the corps headquarters within the NATO Force Structure.
This recommended model would reduce the number of current NATO Command Structure headquarters entities by seven and the number of required Peacetime Establishment posts by some 4,900.
As you can see, Allied Command Transformation (ACT) is also involved in the NCS Review. ACT’s manning will decrease from 1150 to 1050, and ACO has coordinated her review process to ensure Bi-Strategic Command coherency. ACO and ACT are especially coordinating with respect to training, evaluation and certification, capabilities development and finally delineation with respect to military partnerships.
MJO – Major Joint Operation
SJO – Small Joint Operation
NAEW – NATO Airborne Early Warning (Force Command)
AGS – Alliance/Air Ground Surveillance
CAOC – Combined Air Operations Centre
DARS – Deployable Air Command and Control Center Recognized Air Picture Production Center Senior Fusion Post
JFTC – Joint Forces Training Centre (Bydgoszcz, Poland)
JWC – Joint Warfare Centre(Stavanger, NOR)
JALLC – Joint Analysis Lessons Learned Centre (Monsanto/Lisbon, PRT)
500
Ramstein
P Renatico
DCAOC
Uedem
CAOC
Torrejon
CAOC
280
185
185
NAEW
AGS 23
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24. INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE
C2 of NATO Operations
JFC Brunssum
JFC Naples
JFC Lisbon
This slide depicts the C2 arrangments for all currently ongoing operations
a) JFC Brunssum in the Netherlands is primarily responsible for NATO operations in Afghanistan as well as Baltic and Iceland Air Policing. Most recently it picked up responsibility for NATO’s support to the Pakistan Flood contingency.
b) JFC Naples in Italy has responsibility for NATO operations in the Balkans (KFOR), Operation ACTIVE ENDEAVOUR in the Mediterranean, Air Policing over Albania and Slovenia as well as the NATO Training Mission in Iraq.
c) JFC Lisbon in Portugal has no permanently assigned components. It has responsibility for executing NATO Counter Piracy operations (using MCC Northwood as a maritime component), coordinating NATO support to the African Union and currently has responsibility for the NATO Response Force
NTM-I
ACTIVE
ENDEAVOUR
AIR
POLICING/
SURVEILLANCE
OPERATION
OCEAN SHIELD
SUPPORT TO
AFRICAN UNION
KOSOVO
FORCE
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE
UNIFIED
PROTECTOR
AIR
POLICING
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25. And now for something completely different…
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26. NATO UNCLASSIFIED

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29. @ the SLTC Who passed their test?
JUNE – 2 newcomers passed, 7 failed (77% failed)
JUNE – 1 re-test passed, 3 failed (75% failed)
JULY – 1 newcomer passed, 1 failed (50% failed)
JULY – 4 re-test passed, 0 failed (0% failed!!)
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30. @ the SLTC Who passed their test?
AUG – 4 newcomers passed, 15 failed (78% failed)
AUG – 1 re-test passed, 1 failed (50% failed)
SEPT – 5 newcomers passed, 19 failed (79% failed)
SEPT – 0 re-test passed, 1 failed (100% failed!!)
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31. Tests vs. Certificates
June – conducted 42 tests & received 7 certificates from newcomers
July – conducted 13 tests & received 24 certificates
August – conducted 51 tests & received 38 certificates
September – conducted 66 tests & received 9 certificates
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32. French L&R tests
There are not many PE positions that require a mandatory French SLP
…but there are some, therefore those individuals must be tested!
So…………………..
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33. French L&R tests Centre international d’etudes pedagogiques
Created in 1945and a national state organisation since 1987, CIEP is known in France and internationally for its skills in assessment, training and evaluation, and for its ideas in the field of international cooperation in education.
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34. ENGLISH Listening & Reading tests…
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35. English Listening & Reading tests…
Will develop a new battery of L&R tests for the SHAPE Language Testing Centre
Listening tests at Levels 2, 3 &4
Reading tests at Levels 2, 3 &4
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36. QUESTIONS??
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