Multinational Sea Breeze 2019 exercises kick off in Ukraine

Sea Breeze 2019 multinational military exercises started on July 1 in Ukraine’s Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, as well as northwestern parts of the Black Sea.

Military personnel from twenty countries will practice solving military tasks according to NATO standards on land, at sea, underwater and in the air. Military leaders of the exercises have announced the unique format for conducting the drills.

Artillery firing is planned in the naval component. There are many more training exercises, the essence of which has not been disclosed, since the “free play” mode of Sea Breeze 2019 will be set by the multinational training headquarters.

The development of the river element will be an innovation of the current exercises. According to the legend, hostile elements will try to block access to the sea from the largest waterway of Europe, the Danube River. Coast Guard vessels will be tasked with escorting civilian transport vessels along the river, ensuring their free passage through the mouth of the Danube to the Black Sea. This training element will exclusively involve the forces of Ukraine’s State Border Service, in particular, its Coast Guard unit.

Coast Guard and Border aviation units will take part in two tactical groups (in a group of high-speed patrol boats and in the multinational group), where training leaders from Ukraine and the United States will be in charge.

The multinational group of ships, which will include the Coast Guard flagship Grigory Kuropiatnikov, will be assigned to carry out stabilization actions, firing from all available weapons, employing anti-sabotage defense tactics during sea crossings, cargo transfer, search and rescue man overboard training and surveying operations.

Preparation of the review teams is entrusted to the instructors from NATO’s international review group center based in Greece. They will conduct a course of specialized trainings for observers from the crews of ships and boats, as well as for special naval forces units. They will also provide command-and-control support to the usual survey groups.

Naval special forces assault training will be held. They will include parachute-free landing from a helicopter into the water, landing from a helicopter on a ship and island landings using special release devices.

“In total, about 30 ships, 30 aircraft and more than 900 personnel are planning to take part in the exercises, including 10 Coast Guard units, helicopters, two frontier aircraft and about 200 State Border Service soldiers,” the message said.

As reported, Sea Breeze has been held since 1997 annually in accordance with the 1993 Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation in Defense and Military Relations between the U.S. Department of Defense and Ukraine’s Defense Ministry. They are held with the aim of preparing and increasing the combat readiness of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on a bilateral basis, but are open to other countries.

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