Recapping the 2024 Europe Tri-Services Workshop

Accountable in Coordination

The 2024 Europe Tri-Services Industry-Government Engagement Workshop was held February 27-29, in Naples, Italy, co-hosted by SAME with NAVFAC EURAFCENT, USACE Europe District, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe. The event was designed to address issues within and affecting the European Theater—from planning and contracting to design and construction, host nation challenges, evolving international conditions, and to better understand the support needed to improve processes and outcomes with project delivery. Maj. Gen. Mike Wehr, P.E., USA (Ret.), SAME Executive Director labeled the conference “a phenomenal success.” The conference sought to build on the momentum of the Navy, Army, and Air Force engineering leadership and to find ways to hold each other accountable in coordination with industry on delivering solutions to some pressing delivery challenges.

The Europe Tri-Services IGE Workshop began with attendees enjoying a fascinating walking tour of the historic city of Naples. After the tour, it was back to the hotel for a casual happy hour. Tuesday got underway with opening remarks from Col. Charlie Perham, F.SAME, USAF (Ret.), SAME National President; Capt. Rafael Miranda, USN, Commanding Officer, NAVFAC EURAFCENT; Col. Richard Martin Jr., USAF, Commander, Detachment 4, AFIMSC; Col. Daniel Kent, USA, Commander, USACE Europe District, and Rick Tyler, P.E., Chief Engineer, NAVFAC Atlantic.

With the conference focusing on industry-government engagement, the presentations on Monday began with AFIMSC Det 4 and NAVFAC EURAFCENT Opportunities. AFIMSC Det 4 illustrated its structure and presented its main priorities and its two-year forecast for planning and design on both continents. NAVFAC EURAFCENT presented an overview of its mission, current projects and then outlined the opportunities for industry to participate in its sizeable workload.

EUCOM and AFRICOM presented their substantial responsibilities and complex logistical challenges. The commands gave a detailed outline of their current infrastructure and presence. Each provided a summary of short and long term projects planned and opportunities for industry to participate in these initiatives.

On the final session of the afternoon, USACE Europe District and Middle East District reviewed their intricate building strategy throughout Europe and the Middle East amid increased global political and economic challenges such as domestic and international politics, supply chain issues, inflation, the war in Ukraine and the Israel/Gaza conflict. The day wrapped up with a short presentation by Wehr with observations and ways to better leverage the resources of SAME, followed by a networking reception.

Wednesday offered two concurrent technical sessions on Anti-Terrorism & Force Requirements and Cybersecurity. Following a break, a high level summary of Host Nation Challenges and CPARS were discussed in the Roundtable Sessions which set the stage for the rest of the day’s programming. These sessions allowed attendees to discuss topics in a round table format.

The last day of the conference began with a session on Artificial Intelligence in Design and Construction, with a wrap-up session covering out briefs & follow-on actions bring it to a close, along with service takeaways and closing remarks.

2024 Europe Tri-Services IGE Workshop was a successful and unique opportunity to discover the different operational perspectives of the services, understand how each approaches their work, hear about upcoming project opportunities to shape acquisition planning, and garner feedback to help inform processes and procedures in future collaborations. Slides from the event are available on the event’s website, as well as photos on SAME’s Flickr page.