The third and final serial of Exercise Sea Breeze 2024 concluded on September 20 in Varna, Bulgaria, marking the 23rd iteration of this multinational exercise.
The event brought together participants from 12 nations, focusing on enhancing capabilities in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), dive operations, and unmanned underwater vehicles, with the ultimate goal of improving mine countermeasure (MCM) techniques in the Black Sea.
“We adopted a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach for the EOD portion of the exercise,” said Commander John P. Kennedy, commanding officer of EOD Mobile Unit 8. “By the end of Sea Breeze 2024-3, we brought every aspect of our training together to successfully complete a full-mission rehearsal.”
Sailors from across the 12 participating countries worked together to complete a complex mission involving the identification of simulated mine threats, underwater dives to neutralise the threats, and post-detonation verification.
Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, Commander of U.S. 6th Fleet, praised the exercise as an important step towards ensuring future peace and security in the Black Sea.
“Exercises like Sea Breeze are important to the future peace, security, and stability of the Black Sea region,” Ishee said at a press conference. “We demonstrated how we each dispose of ordnance and how we find drifting mines and are able to diffuse them. Understanding how we work to address this threat helps us to address the mine threat now and in the future.”
This year’s Sea Breeze 2024 saw participation from 16 countries and organizations, including Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, NATO Allied Maritime Command, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The exercise successfully built on previous serials, such as the UK-hosted integration of mine countermeasure vessels and a Fleet Commanders’ Conference held in Bulgaria earlier this month, where participants discussed collective maritime security strategies for the Black Sea.
