Ten years ago, on June 17, 2009, the U.S. Armed Forces European Command (EUCOM) and the U.S. 6th Fleet officially notified Ukraine’s Defense Ministry that foreign military units scheduled to take part in the Sea Breeze-2009 naval exercises in Ukraine had to cancel their participation. The cancellation was because Ukraine’s Parliament, stuck in political deadlock, failed to authorize the entry of such units on the national territory of Ukraine for the 2009 exercise.
Held annually for two weeks in July since 1997 (except 2006 and 2009), on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and at sea, as well as the Shirokyi Lan base in Mykolayiv Oblast, the joint exercise combines naval, ground and air forces involving more than 2,000 military personnel from about 15 NATO members and partner countries by invitation.
In subsequent years, Sea Breeze was moved to Odesa to avoid stirring anti-NATO sentiments in Crimea, even though the exercise is not a NATO exercise, but a U.S.-Ukraine joint exercise with participants being invited. However, Moscow used these sentiments to swell protest groups in Crimea.
The exercise is designed to enhance multinational interoperability – particularly with Ukrainian forces – by practicing operation information sharing, maritime interdiction, boarding and seizure of suspect ships, anti-submarine operations, mine countermeasures, diving missions, amphibious landings, urban warfare improvised-explosive-device detection and disposal, paratroops’ landings, air warfare, and peacekeeping elements.
This year’s Sea Breeze will be held in the Mykolayiv, Kherson and Odesa regions, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported. The maneuvers will include 30 warships, 30 aircraft and more than 900 Marines from 14 different countries. Specifically, the Yatran sonar system, designed to detect ships and submarines, was adopted into the armament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak signed the decree to adopt the new sonar system based on positive results of state testing, as reported by state-owned defense company Ukroboronprom.
The system includes special sonar buoys with sensitive acoustic sensors and a digital information processing center that combines information from multiple passively operating sonar buoys that are absolutely invisible to enemy warships, making it possible to monitor the movement of hostile ships and submarines and to transmit their coordinates for targeting purposes. The sonar buoys can be dropped via helicopter, creating a network of sensors in the shortest possible time to cover large areas of water and see a full picture of the location and movement of all enemy ships.
Source: “U.S.-led Sea Breeze 2009 exercise cancelled in Ukraine,” by Vladimir Socor (Eurasia Daily Monitor), The Ukrainian Weekly, June 28, 2009.