After a long gestation, Europe's efforts to federate its limited force-projection capacity appear ready to coalesce into an common airlift command closely coordinating air, land and sea transport movements. Although the idea of a European airlift command dates back to a Franco-German initiative in 1999, planners first had to find ways to amalgamate existing capacity and identify options for eventually acquiring or leasing multinational assets. This led to the European Airlift Coordination Cell (EACC), created here in 2001 to permit the sharing of assets for NATO and European Union peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. In 2004, the EACC was tasked with planning and interoperability, as well as coordination, and turned into the European Airlift Center.
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