site.btaBreeze 2026 Exercise Participants to Demonstrate Capabilities in Burgas, President to Attend

Participants in the Breeze 2026 national naval exercise with international participation will demonstrate their capabilities during a Distinguished Visitors and Media Day in Burgas, the Defence Ministry said on Friday. The demonstrations will begin in the morning and continue until 1:30 p.m. President Iliana Iotova will observe the exercise, the President’s Press Secretariat said.

At 8:30 a.m., Iotova will be welcomed with military honours at the Burgas Marine Station, where she will inspect the guard of honour. She will then board the Drazki frigate to observe demonstrations of defence capabilities in various crisis situations.

The exercise aims to enhance interoperability and cooperation among the participants through joint training tasks and a broad range of maritime operations in response to crises, as well as efforts to mitigate the consequences of major accidents and incidents, the President’s Press Secretariat said.

In the waters of Burgas Bay, the Breeze 2026 participants will demonstrate real-life actions to contain a fire aboard a vessel, deal with the consequences of an incident involving a merchant ship, repel attacks by an airborne adversary, attack a submarine, and carry out other operations.

During the demonstrations, Burgas Municipality will deploy an automatic mobile ambient air quality monitoring station at the Port of Burgas, the municipal press centre said. The station will monitor air quality indicators in real time during a simulated fire aboard a merchant vessel, scheduled to take place between 8:45 and 9:15 a.m. The press centre said DM-11 smoke grenades would be used during the demonstration at Berth 2. They pose no danger to people but may cause temporary smoke in the area.

Breeze 2026 involves ships, aircraft, unmanned underwater vehicles, diving teams and staff officers from the naval forces of Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, the United States, Turkiye and France.

Also participating are representatives of Bulgaria’s Joint Forces Command, Joint Special Operations Command, Land Forces and Air Force, the G. S. Rakovski National Defence College, the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, as well as ships from the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Group.