21 military ships, 10 combat aircraft, and a submarine participate between May 4-11 in Sea Shield 18, the largest NATO exercise organised on the southern and eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance in 2018.
More than 2,300 US, British, Bulgarian, Greek, Romanian, Spanish and Turkish troops are involved in operations. They will implement standard NATO procedures to fight air, submarine and maritime asymmetric threats, according to a scenario based on a fictitious geopolitical situation, the Romanian Naval Forces, the organizer of the exercise, announced on Wednesday.
The Romanian Naval Forces participates with two frigates, two corvettes, two missile-carrying ships, two sea minesweepers, two mobile missile launch units, auxiliary ships and combat divers, the Romanian Air Force provides the fight sequences against air threats with three MiG 21 Lancer airplanes and, for the first time, Romanian Land Forces participate with a detachment of infantry from the 9th Mechanised Brigade „Marasesti”.
Turkey participates with a submarine, a frigate, a patrol ship, an MPA P 235 research plane, Bulgaria with the BGS Bodri corvette, USA with an MPA P 8 Orion patrol plane, the UK participates with three Typhoon aircraft and Greece with staff officers.
NATO Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) is represented by SNMG-2 Standing NATO Maritime Group, which operates in the Black Sea between May 1 and 21, and consists of the HMS Duncan British destroyer, the Bulgarian frigate BGS Drazki, the Spanish frigate SPS Victoria and the Romanian frigate „King Ferdinand”.
The Sea Shield 18 multinational exercise is the largest NATO exercise on the southern and eastern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance in 2018 and proves the special ability of Romanian military sailors to plan, organize and conduct training activities in the three action fields – terrestrial, air and maritime, reports the Romanian Naval Forces.
