Casualty Move 26

Berlin - The multinational exercise “Casualty Move 26” (CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation) is currently taking place in Berlin, bringing together military and civilian experts to train and further improve international coordination in the treatment and evacuation of injured personnel as well as medical logistics and civil military interaction.

Casualty Move Exercise in Berlin: Strengthening Multinational Patient Transport and Medical Logistics

Berlin - the multinational exercise “Casualty Move” (CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation) recently took place in Berlin, bringing together military and civilian experts to train and improve international coordination in the treatment and evacuation of injured personnel. The exercise was coordinated by the Multinational Medical Coordination Centre – Europe (MMCCMultinational Medical Coordination Centre-E) and formed part of the ongoing CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation exercise series aimed at strengthening multinational medical cooperation within both NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization and EUEuropean Union frameworks.

Multinational Participation

The exercise involved 18 member nations of the MMCCMultinational Medical Coordination Centre-E, supported by two additional nations from NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. The aim was to train and further develop multinational procedures for the coordination of medical support and patient evacuation.

Throughout the exercise, participating nations were challenged through scenario-based “injects.” These simulated events and tasks were centrally coordinated by the MMCCMultinational Medical Coordination Centre-E and required the participating countries to respond through their national coordination cells while operating within a multinationally controlled framework. This approach allowed each nation to practice its national procedures while ensuring interoperability and coordination across the multinational system.

Focus: Patient Transport and Medical Logistics

The main focus of the exercise lay on two key elements of military medical support:

• Strategic patient transport and medical evacuation
• Medical logistics and resource coordination

The exercise simulated the management of patient flows across national borders and between different medical facilities. Participants practiced coordinating transport capacities, allocating treatment facilities and ensuring that patients were transferred efficiently through the multinational medical evacuation chain.

Special emphasis was placed on the integration of transport coordination and medical logistics, ensuring that available resources were used effectively and that potential bottlenecks in transportation or medical capacity could be identified and mitigated at an early stage.

Use of Reach-Back Elements

As in previous exercises of the CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation series, many nations participated using “reach-back” elements. Parts of the participating national staffs remained in their home countries while being connected to the exercise through digital communication and command systems.
This distributed training concept allowed nations to replicate their real national decision-making structures and coordination procedures, while still operating within a multinational exercise environment. Another important component of the exercise was the implementation of lessons learned from previous CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation exercises. Over past iterations, valuable insights had been gained regarding multinational medical coordination, including:

• improving coordination between military and civilian healthcare systems,
• enhancing patient flow management and coordination procedures,
• strengthening multimodal transport planning, and
• integrating medical and logistical resources at an early stage.

These lessons were applied and further refined during the exercise.
Objective of the Exercise

The overarching objective of Casualty Move was to optimize multinational patient care and evacuation procedures. By improving interoperability, coordination mechanisms and shared operational processes, the exercise aimed to ensure that patients could be transported and treated as quickly and effectively as possible in multinational operations.

The CAMOContinuing Airworthiness Management Organisation exercise series therefore represented an important contribution to strengthening multinational medical support capabilities within NATONorth Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, ultimately supporting the goal of providing the best possible care for patients in complex operational scenarios.