A division of NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 2 and maritime assets from other allied nations joined the U.S.-Ukraine co-hosted international exercise Sea Breeze in the Black Sea from July 27 to 30.
Personnel from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Italy, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States participated in the exercise which focused primarily on maritime interdiction operations. Other warfare areas tested included air defense, anti-submarine warfare, damage control, search and rescue, and other tactical manoeuvres.
“Historically, there has been cooperation between the countries on the shores of the Black Sea. Exercise Sea Breeze is part of the regular rhythm of SNMG2 deployments to maintain a high level of readiness and capability,” said Commander Andrew Hingston , TU.02 Commander and Commanding Officer of HMCS Charlottetown.
Standing NATO Maritime Group Two Task Unit Two (SNMG2 TU.02) is part of one of NATO’s four standing maritime groups (SNMGs). The SNMGs are a multinational, integrated maritime force made up of vessels from various allied countries. These vessels (including their helicopters) are permanently available to NATO to perform different tasks ranging from participating in exercises to actually intervening in operational missions.
These groups provide NATO with a continuous maritime capability for operations and other activities in peacetime and in periods of crisis and conflict. They also help to establish Alliance presence, demonstrate solidarity, conduct routine diplomatic visits to different countries, support transformation and provide a variety of maritime military capabilities to ongoing missions.
The ships of TU.02 will return to the Mediterranean early next month to resume patrols contributing to maritime situational awareness.