site.btaBulgarian Navy to Hold Three Major Exercises in 2024, Armed Service Commander Says

The Bulgarian Navy will hold three major exercises until the end of this year, the Commander of the armed service, Rear Admiral Kiril Mihaylov, told journalists here on Monday.

Burgas (on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea coast) will host the Navy's largest exercise, Breeze 2024, between July 4 and 14. In addition to honing the Navy's military skills, it will enable the armed service to interact with all governmental and non-governmental organizations dealing with maritime affairs, the Rear Admiral said. Next, a national diving exercise with international participation codenamed Triton will take place in Varna (northern Black Sea coast). Finally, the Joint Bulgarian-Romanian Exercise Poseidon, open for participation to other countries as well, will be held in Burgas in the autumn of 2024.

The Navy will shortly acquire coastal missile systems, the Commander said further. The multi-role patrol vessels are being furnished with full-fledged electronic-warfare and anti-submarine warfare equipment. Mihaylov specified that work is also underway on a number of other smaller projects for the Navy, including the procurement of drones and remote-controlled submersibles.

Mine Counter-measures

The Rear Admiral said that Bulgarians and foreign visitors do not have to worry about the problem with floating mines in the Black Sea. "The Navy is constantly monitoring the maritime space and is following all developments in Bulgarian territorial waters," he emphasized. In his words, since the beginning of the war against Ukraine the Navy has been periodically scrutinizing all commercial shipping fairways and responds to all reports of spotted mine-like objects. "More than 50 such reports have been received so far. The most recent one was less than two months ago, when we destroyed the fifth floating mine in a row," Mihaylov pointed out. He specified that a total of 16 floating mines have been destroyed in the Black Sea so far: five each by Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, and one has exploded off the coast of Georgia.

The Navy Commander said that a Memorandum of Understanding between Bulgaria, Romania and Turkiye on the establishment of a Mine Counter-measures Task Group Black Sea, signed in January 2024, has already entered into force. Working meetings are taking place continuously to draft the documents necessary for the activation of the Task Group, which will follow a meeting of the commanders from the three countries, Mihaylov explained.

He added that the Black Sea Maritime Coordination Element in Varna, as a component of the Naval Operational Centre, is key to counter-mine warfare. "It is gateway for the information and has been operating on a 24/7 mode since the beginning of the war," the Rear Admiral said. He added that constant communication is maintained with the naval operational centres of the Black Sea Allies and with the NATO Operational Centre. 

The Bulgarian Navy find and recover from the sea a lot of military hardware debris, such as jet-assisted-take-off units, Mihaylov added, explaining that they are not so much hazardous for shipping as an extremely distressing sight for people on shore. "That is why we are trying to recover everything and take it away from the sea," he said.