Yesterday at 23:53
“Thank you for coming out. What we are here about to witness is a mechanized bilateral attack with Ukrainian marines and US marines. What we are doing — we are showing our interoperability, our partnership, and our lethality,” Commander of US Army, Captian David Smith.
For the first time at the Sea Breeze exercises, the American side brought a company with combat experience in Afghanistan and Iraq. In their turn, the Ukrainian military shared the experience they’ve gained while fighting Russia’s war in the Donbas.
“Today was an amazing demonstration of interoperability in a complex maneuver and live-fire environment. Irrelevant by equipment utilized by each nation,” a US Navy captain John Young said.
The advancement of the mechanized company is backed up by snipers and artillery fire.
“These are firing positions of the joint Ukraine-US unit, which include open firing positions with 60 mm mortars of the United States, open firing positions with 82 mm mortars of Ukraine, and covered firing positions with 2S1 artillery systems,” Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of the 503 detached battalion of the Ukrainian marine forces said.
Meanwhile, a cutting-edge counter-battery radar system is used to spot the enemy. It can detect people up to 5 kilometers away and has already proven its worth on the frontline in eastern Ukraine.
“The main advantage of the machine is that the image from the camera and the sight can be transmitted within more than 3.5 km to the command post, and I can watch the battlefield online. And accordingly, the firing capability of the complex — it is able to target it and strike it,” Sukharevskyi added.
The exercise also involved aviation.
“The enemy never sends all of its units into battle. There’s always a reserve that should strike in the most inopportune moment from the most inconvenient direction. That’s why we decided to use the Moldova-Ukraine back-up company with helicopters so that it’s ready to react any moment,” Sukharevskyi said.
Altogether 800 military personnel from Georgia, Moldova, the United States, and Ukraine took part in the land part of the Sea Breeze 2019.
