Sea Shield multinational exercise - a successful first for the participating Heracleea Marine Infantry Regiment

  Almost 250 Romanian and Spanish troops participated on Thursday in a live ammunition training drill carried out at the Babadag Shooting Range as part of the Sea Shield 25 multinational exercise, the largest training event this year and a first for the personnel of the Heracleea Marine Infantry Regiment (RIM).Regiment commander, Colonel Marius Gheorghescu told the press that of the almost 250 participating troops, 86 are Spanish. The drill followed a scenario where Romania's coastline had to be defended against an amphibious and naval assault, against the backdrop of an aggressive electronic jamming and IT attack."Defending Romania's coastline is an essential component of national and allied defense. We have always practiced these types of exercises that involve national and multinational forces of the alliance or our partners, as well as very diverse military hardware and technology. We have worked over time with American, French and British partners. This year is the first time that we exercise together with our Spanish partners and we discovered that we have many common elements regarding the mode of action, doctrine, techniques, tactics and combat procedures," said Commander Gheorghescu.The drill saw the participation of about 60 means of transport, half of which are armored personnel carriers, as well as the use of drones.In his turn, the commander of the participating river battle group, Commander Octavian Mocanu, stressed that the soldiers of the River Flotilla permanently carry out surveillance missions of the adjacent river and land space."We coordinated quite well [with the Spanish troops] and the mission was successfully accomplished, considering that we used live ammunition, in static and in motion conditions. We coordinated in such a way that we could cover our vehicles, the carriers and at the same time fire live ammunition," said Private Eugen Raducan, a scout with RIM Heracleea.The Romanian Navy is running between March 31 and April 11 the multinational exercise SEA SHIELD 25, the largest training event this year, having as a main goal enhancing interoperability between the naval forces of the allied and partner states, as well as the optimization of the effort of the institutions in the defense, public order and national security system.The exercise takes place with the participation of over 2,300 troops from Romania and 11 partner states - Albania, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Spain, the United States of America and Turkey.The Romanian Navy participates with over 1,600 troops and 80 hardware items, including 28 sea and river vessels, two helicopters and a mobile ballistic detachment.