Smardan Range, Romania –
U.S. Marines assigned to 3rd Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Company, 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, along with land forces from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Türkiye and Ukraine kicked off Sea Breeze 25-1 in Smardan Range, Romania.
The first iteration of Sea Breeze 25 will focus on a series of joint training events, live fire ranges, and culminate with a final integrated exercise which simulates an amphibious raid in the Black Sea region as part of Exercise Sea Breeze 2025 (SB25-1), June 9 – June 20, 2025.
This amphibious portion of Sea Breeze provides the opportunity for NATO allies and partner nations to enhance interoperability and warfighting capabilities in battalion-level staff planning, command and control, and tactical operations with a focus on integrating organic systems and capabilities in a complex, multi-domain environment.
The combined land and naval forces will individually demonstrate local riverine capabilities; FPV and High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) live-fire events; the assimilation of Unmanned Aerial Systems and partner communication capabilities; and will culminate with a demonstration combining each individual capability while integrating Ally and partner forces in a battalion-level event.
Meanwhile, at the Sea Breeze 25-1 Headquarters (HQ), a combined and multi-national HQ Staff will conduct integrated training with a focus on planning and targeting capabilities, supporting real-time operations with gathered intelligence, command-and-control of Ally and partner forces, electronic warfare exploitation and countermeasures, and the integration of unmanned systems to increase and consolidate cross-domain awareness.
This year, Exercise Sea Breeze 2025 will occur in two iterations, Sea Breeze 25-1 and 25-2.
The second iteration, Sea Breeze 2025-2, will be co-hosted by U.S. 6th Fleet and Ukraine and hosted by the Royal Navy in Portland, England, June 30 – 11 July, 2025. This mine countermeasure (MCM) focused iteration will include Mine Countermeasure Vessels conducting mine hunting operations, explosive ordnance disposal, dive and salvage operations, unmanned underwater vehicles, and unmanned surface vessels.
Since 1997, Exercise Sea Breeze has brought together most Black Sea nations and NATO Allies and partners together to train and operate with NATO members in the pursuit of building increased capability.
Exercise Sea Breeze 2025 is an annual multinational maritime exercise, involving sea, land, and air components, and is co-hosted by the United States and Ukraine to enhance interoperability and capability among participating forces in the Black Sea region.
Commander, U.S. Sixth Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allies, international partners, and other U.S. government departments and agencies to advance U.S. national interests, security and stability in Europe and Africa.