February 9, 2017

U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) joined over 2,800 service personnel from Romania, Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine for the at-sea portion of exercise Sea Shield on February 8.

Sea Shield is an annual, Romania-led multinational exercise in the Black Sea designed to improve interoperability and combat proficiency of participating units.

In addition to USS Porter, other units include ships from NATO’s SNMG 2, frigates from the navies of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and a number of corvettes and missile boats.

“We’ve already strengthened our interoperability through the in-port planning phase of Sea Shield 2017, and Porter in particular is looking forward to the operational phase at sea,” Cmdr. Andria Slough, commanding officer, USS Porter (DDG 78) said. “Advanced exercises like Sea Shield provide us with an opportunity to work across all warfare areas, ultimately improving our combined readiness and naval capability with our Black Sea allies and partners.”

Sea Shield is scheduled to conclude on February 10.