The 18th iteration of exercise Sea Breeze concluded following a closing ceremony in Odessa, Ukraine, July 17. Sea Breeze is a U.S. and Ukraine co-hosted multinational maritime exercise held in the Black Sea and is designed to enhance interoperability of participating nations and strengthen maritime security within the region. "Our Sailors and Marines worked on the water, in the air, on land and under the sea," said Rear Adm. Shawn Duane, vice commander of U.S. 6th Fleet. "Twenty-nine ships from 18 nations participated and many tactical skills were practiced and perfected." For the first time during Sea Breeze, the staff embarked the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) during the at-sea portion of the exercise. In total, there were more than 150 staff members from various countries that made up the Sea Breeze 2018 maritime operations center aboard Mount Whitney. "The reason we wanted to go afloat this year was that it keeps people singularly focused on the exercise with no distractions," said Capt. Matt Lehman, commodore of Task Force (TF) 65. Participants were familiar with some of the training that the exercise offers. Bringing the planning and execution aboard Mount Whitney added an additional layer of real-world training. "This year's exercise presented new challenges and new areas to improve that will allow us to make next year's exercise even more complex," said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Ryan Newmeyer, TF-65 maritime planner. "As we increase the interoperability between our Black Sea partners and NATO allies, we need to continue to adapt to the changing environment and embarking staff aboard the USS Mount Whitney is just one way of doing that." Ships from the U.S., Ukraine, Turkey, and Bulgaria participated in different scenarios while underway. Maritime interdiction operations, air defense, anti-submarine warfare, damage control tactics, search and rescue and medical training are some areas the exercise focused on. "The purpose of the at-sea phase of the exercise was to work with NATO and non-NATO navies to conduct serialized events in a variety of warfare areas," said Newmeyer. Cmdr. Craig Trent, executive officer of the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78), lauded the effort the nations exuded for this year's Sea Breeze. "The success of this year's exercise is a very positive step in building our partnerships and strengthening each others capabilities," said Trent. "Each year our exercise grows in complexity and we intend to carry this trend forward." Sea Breeze is designed to enhance interoperability among participating nations and strengthen regional security by focusing on a variety of warfare areas. U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests, security and stability in Europe and Africa.