Exercise Sea Breeze 17 – U.S. special operations forces and Ukrainian SOF trained with conventional U.S. and Ukrainian naval forces during Exercise Sea Breeze 17 held in the Black Sea off the coast of Ukraine during July 10-21, 2017. Sea Breeze has been held annually in the Black Sea region since 1997.
Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR) saw in the exercise a good opportunity to work out interoperability issues with the Ukrainian SOF. In addition to the naval SOF units (from Naval Special Warfare Unit 2) the United States also sent elements of the 352nd Special Operations Wing.
The NSW units brought their rigid hull inflatable boats which they used for direct action, personnel recovery, and VBSS missions. The AFSOF folks brought their CV-22 Osprey aircraft.
Read more in “U.S. Naval Special Warfare Operators train with Ukrainian SOF at Sea Breeze 17”, SOCEUR DVIDS, July 21, 2017.
