The U.S. 6th Fleet and NATO ships will jointly conduct Sea Breeze 2024 mine countermeasures exercise with the Ukrainian Navy in Scotland. Sea Breeze 2024 is led jointly by the U.S. Navy 6th Fleet and the Ukrainian Navy, hosted by the Royal Navy, and involves NATO members and international partners in a dedicated exercise to keep the alliance’s joint mine countermeasures capabilities fresh. The exercise will be held in the vicinity of Arran, Campbeltown, and the Northern Minches, off the coast of Scotland.
The exercise aims to address the issues that mines bring to marine safety, security, global food security, and trade. It focuses on integrating, commanding, and controlling Mine Countermeasure Vessels and establishing a Ukrainian task group headquarters staffed by international personnel and mentors. Additionally, the Turkish MoD gave an update on the joint Mine Counter Measures (MCM) initiative with Romania and Bulgaria in the Black Sea. The task force will improve maritime safety in the Black Sea, which is threatened by drifting mines from the Russo-Ukrainian War. A meeting and activation ceremony to follow will be held in Umuryeri/İstanbul on the 1st of July for the MCM Black Sea task force.
Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) is participating in the exercise with three ships: German Elbe-class replenishment ship FGS Donau A516, French Tripartite-class minehunter ship FS Céphée M652 and Estonian Sandown-class minehunter ship ENS Ugandi M315. They will be joined by Ukrainian minehunters Cherkasy and Chernihiv, which the United Kingdom previously donated. According to NATO’s statement, personnel from Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Japan, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom are also present, with many serving as observers and mentors to Ukrainian staff. Turkish Defence Ministry also stated that the Turkish Navy has sent personnel to the exercise.
The NATO statement about the exercise focusing on Ukraine points out that the focus of the exercise is supporting Ukraine’s mine countermeasure capabilities with an amount of field experience. This will also serve as a training ground for the Ukrainian crew of the minehunter ships donated by the U.K. Since the Montreux convention doesn’t allow foreign warships to pass the straits in the event of a war, Ukraine’s new minehunters will train in Scotland that offers a similar setting with Ukraine’s maritime zone. During the Russo-Ukrainian War, both sides employed naval mines of different types to deny the other side sea access, which also caused problems for neighbouring countries’ navigation in the Black Sea.
