Active phase of Sea Breeze 2011 exercise started

15.06.2011 Multinational headquarters of the Sea Breeze 2011 Ukrainian-American naval exercise including representatives from third countries has begun realization of the active phase.

According to Ukrainian defense ministry, one of exercise directors Capt 1 rank Igor Teryokhin said that during this phase coastal, sea, and air components would operate in accordance with the exercise scenario to implement the scheduled anti-piracy operation effectively.

The active phase will begin with departure from Odessa port and mine defense drill. Then landing ships will deliver troops on unequipped coast with the view to neutralize a "pirate den". Main force will practice underway transshipment of servicemen, data and cargo exchange, inter-ship deck landing etc. "At the previous stage we were arranging the joint force issues", Teryokhin said. "The military of different countries got acquainted with each other, held communication, damage control and firing drills, and so on. The headquarters conducted general control and assessed effectiveness of that process".

As for the officer, all activities are up to the predetermined plan; the main purpose is to promote experience exchange between servicemen of different navies and improve joint actions while international operations. "Sure, life always brings surprises, but so far staff officers cope with scheduled and unexpected tasks successfully", underlined Teryokhin.