U.S. 6th Fleet and the Bulgarian Navy closed out the third serial of Sea Breeze 2024, concluding the 23rd iteration of exercise Sea Breeze, Sept. 20, 2024.
Twelve countries participated in exercise Sea Breeze 2024-3, training together and exchanging knowledge on explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), dive operations, and unmanned underwater vehicles.
“We adopted a ‘crawl, walk, run’ approach for the EOD portion of the exercise, and by the end of Sea Breeze 2024-3, we brought every aspect of our training together to successfully complete a full-mission rehearsal,” said Cmdr John P. Kennedy, commanding officer of EOD Mobile Unit (EODMU) 8. “I am incredibly proud of how Sailors across 12 nations worked together as one team and learned from each other to enhance our collective EOD and mine countermeasures (MCM) capabilities.”
The culminating training event for Sea Breeze 2024-3 brought the various serials together into a full-mission rehearsal. It started with an underwater vehicle that identified a simulated mine threat. From there, the joint EOD teams used techniques they trained on from previous exercise events to find a mine in the water, safely dive to deliver an explosive charge, detonate that explosive charge to render the threat safe, and place divers in the water to verify that their procedures were effective.
The final training week during Sea Breeze 2024-3 allowed the U.S., Allies and partner nations to further refine tactics, techniques, and procedures for EOD and MCM. Sea Breeze 2024 successfully built and enhanced U.S. and Allied EOD/MCM capability, which is essential for demining the Black Sea.
“Exercises like Sea Breeze are important to future peace, security, and stability of the Black Sea region,” Vice Adm. Thomas Ishee, commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, said at a press conference during the Fleet Commanders’ Conference. “We greatly appreciate the Allies and partners who joined us to promote freedom of navigation, stability, and security in the Black Sea. 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.”
Exercise Sea Breeze 2024 is a joint MCM exercise between the Bulgarian Navy, Royal Navy, Ukrainian Navy and U.S. Navy. Sixteen countries and organizations participated this year: Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, NATO Allied Maritime Command, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine, U.K. and U.S.
The initial serial, hosted by the United Kingdom from June 24 to July 5, focused on the integration and command and control of mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV) and a Ukrainian task group headquarters augmented by international staff officers and mentors.
The second serial was a Fleet Commanders’ Conference co-hosted by the Bulgarian Navy and U.S. 6th Fleet from September 9-11, focused on discussing the current maritime situation in the Black Sea, collective demining capabilities, and effective ways to enhance maritime security in the region.
U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.
This "Exercise Sea Breeze 2024 Concludes in Varna, Bulgaria" was originally found on https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Term/3087/
