The Sea Shield 17 multinational exercise will kick off in the Black Sea waters on February 1, with troops from eight countries participating in the drills.

A total of 2,800 troops from Romania, Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, Spain, the U.S., Turkey, and Ukraine will participate in the military exercise, according to a statement from the Romanian Naval Forces. They will “implement standard NATO combat procedures against air, submarine and land threats in the Black Sea, on an area of some 80,000 square kilometers.

The Starfleet Command will coordinate the exercise’s sequences, and the King Ferdinand Frigate will lead the maritime group made of a destroyer, four frigates, a submarine, and six aircraft of foreign partners, as well as 11 ships and four aircraft of Romania, according to the statement.

“Organizing and leading the Sea Shield 17 multinational exercise shows that the training system of the Romanian Naval Forces meets the performance standards of NATO, and that the Romanian troops are ready at any moment to fulfill their constitutional missions.”

The NATO SNMG-2 maritime group, composed of Spanish frigate ESPS Hua de Borbon and Canadian frigate HMCS St. John’s will participate in the drills, as well as the United States Naval Forces Europe (NAVEUR) with the USS Porter destroyer and a research aircraft, the Turkish Naval Forces with a submarine, a P-235 aircraft, and the TCG Fatih frigate, the Bulgarian Naval Forces with the BGS Smeli frigate, and Ukraine and Greece with staff officers.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Wikipedia)