Editing Supreme Allied Commander (section)

==Cold War-era to present-day titles==
{{Main|Supreme Allied Commander Europe|Supreme Allied Commander Transformation|Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization}}
The term came into use again with the formation of [[NATO]] in 1949. In 1952, [[Allied Command Europe]] was established, led by Eisenhower. He became the ''Supreme Allied Commander'' (SACEUR). Soon afterwards, Allied Command Atlantic was established, at Norfolk, Virginia, under [[Lynde D. McCormick|Lynde McCormick]], a U.S. Navy admiral. His title was ''[[Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic]]'' (SACLANT), and the entire command was usually known as SACLANT. Both Supreme Commanders have, until 2009, been American, with a deputy commander from another NATO member, though only British and Germans have held the post.

Responding to the establishment of NATO, the [[Warsaw Pact]] was established in 1955 along with their own posts of [[Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization|United Armed Forces Supreme Commander]] and [[Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization|Chief of Combined Staff]]. Until the disbandment of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, both posts had always been held by a [[Marshal of the Soviet Union]] or [[Army General (Soviet rank)|Army General]] due to their expertise in commanding and coordinating forces of enormous sizes in the [[Soviet Armed Forces]].

In June 2003, the commands were reshuffled. One command was given responsibility for operations, and one for transforming the military components of the alliance to meet new challenges. In Europe, Allied Command Operations was established from the former Allied Command Europe, and given responsibility for all NATO military operations worldwide. However, for legal reasons,{{explain|date=October 2017}} SACEUR retained the traditional title including Europe.<ref name=PedlowNATO>Pedlow, [http://www.aco.nato.int/resources/21/Evolution%20of%20NATO%20Cmd%20Structure%201951-2009.pdf Evolution of NATO's Command Structure 1951-2009].</ref> In the United States, SACLANT was decommissioned and [[Allied Command Transformation]] established. The headquarters of ACT is at the former SACLANT headquarters in [[Norfolk, Virginia]], USA. Each has a Supreme Allied Commander as its commander.

* [[Allied Command Operations]] (ACO) has its headquarters at [[Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe]] (SHAPE), at [[Mons, Belgium]]. It is headed by the '''[[Supreme Allied Commander Europe]]''' (SACEUR), a U.S. four-star general or admiral also heading [[United States European Command|U.S. European Command]]. The current Commander is General [[Christopher G. Cavoli]] ([[United States Army|Army]]), who succeeded General [[Tod Wolters]] ([[United States Air Force|Air Force]]).
* [[Allied Command Transformation]] (ACT) is located in [[Norfolk, Virginia]], USA. It is headed by the '''[[Supreme Allied Commander Transformation]]''' (SACT), a four-star general or admiral. General [[Stéphane Abrial]], the commander from 2009 until 2012, was the first non-American to hold a supreme commander role within NATO. Since then this position has been held by a [[French Air Force]] officer. The commander of the organization is currently General [[Philippe Lavigne]].<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/who_is_who.htm| title = NATO - Who's who?}} </ref>