INSTANBUL – Naval ships from eight countries will take part in NATO’s Sea Shield training drills, during which standard methods for defending against air, undersea and overland attacks will be practiced, the press service of Romania’s Navy has said.
Some 2,800 seamen from Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.S. will take part, along with 16 seafaring ships, one submarine and ten airplanes.
The exercise will take place from Feb. 1 to Feb. 10 in an 80 square kilometer section of the Black Sea.
“Romania’s King Ferdinand frigate will coordinate the training and providing command and control for the group, which consists of a torpedo vessel, four frigates, one submarine, six planes from foreign partners, as well as 11 Romanian vessels and four Romanian planes,” the announcement said.
From Feb. 3 to Feb. 5 the stopover of foreign ships – the ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbón (F-102) air defense frigate of the Spanish Navy and the HMCS St. John’s Halifax-class frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy – in the Romanian port of Constanta is planned. They are part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2). The USS Porter destroyer of the U.S. Naval Forces Europe (NAVEUR), a Turkish submarine and the Turkish TCG Fatih frigate, as well as Bulgaria’s BGS Smeli frigate will also visit the port.
The Turkish Naval Forces’ assets will include two frigates, two corvettes, two missile corvettes, two minesweepers, two ships equipped with missiles on mobile naval platforms.
The naval forces will be supported by a U.S. spy plane, a Turkish patrol aircraft, two MiG-21 fighters of the Romanian Air Force and a Romanian medical-evacuation helicopter.
Ukraine and Greece will send their troops for naval exercises.
