Eurasian Partnership Dive 14

Eurasian Partnership Dive 14, a multinational exercise held at Constanta, gathered together over 80 divers from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the US and Ukraine to execute real diving missions in the maritime districts of Constanta.

Led by the Romanian military divers, the exercise had two distinct phases: the EOD being carried out on board the military intervention diving ship „Venus” and the scuba on board of the intervention ship „Grigore Antipa”.

 The purpose of the exercise, as explained by Captain Commander Adrian Ontica, chief of the EOD combat divers, „is to show the participating partners, nations partners for peace, as Romania was until 2004, the NATO procedures. The participating national armies belonging to future NATO members will learn to change their combat systems, from the mindset to the organizational and logistical part. Through this exercise, alongside the US Navy, we show our partners our standard operational procedures. They will see the equipment and how to use it, and also our procedures, which are NATO standards, will go back to their country and begin, in turn, to share these experiences with their co-nationals. Divers learn primarily to change the mentality and way of thinking, learn about a NATO structure of divers and scuba combat units, equipment that we use, and all this is done through practice, so they can gain information that will be useful when they get back home, information about their equipment, training mode, standards that have to be changed, some of which have already begun the process of change.”

In the first part of the exercise, divers from the invited states, under the guidance and supervision of Romanian and American divers, organized into mixed teams, could practice search procedures, discovery and neutralization of an explosive device, and underwater search, exploration, filming and photographing of EOD and other immersed structures. The divers searched around the ship to uncover explosives, mark their locations, and neutralize them using a disruptor.

The second part was a training exercise aimed to improve the skills needed for operating with underwater hydraulic tools, as explained by Captain Commander Cocea Laurentiu, chief of the great depth divers unit. „Each mixed team of divers descended to the depth of work that today was 25-30 meters, there is a flange that has some parts screwed, that they have to unscrew so they become familiar with these tools. Then we will move to a second set of hydraulic tools, including pick hammer, grinder and underwater chainsaw.”

From the American partners, Lcdr. Rob McGregor, responsible for organizing the exercise, stated, at the end of the Eurasian Partnership Dive, that “this exercise is important for the US Navy, to be able to work with our partners and allies, developing and sharing professional relationships, so we can understand how our partners do things and how we do things. Organizing such an exercise take a little bit of work, but at the end, when all comes together and all share their experiences, my part becomes insignificant compared with the benefits that we get from working with our allies.”

At the Eurasian Partnership Dive exercise, attended with a support role, „Lightning” 1 and 2 speedboats, and the participants were given access to the Hyperbaric Laboratory Diving Center, the only structure in the region equipped with Diving Decompression chamber.