Defence Team News | Clearing explosive mine threats in the Black Sea
Video / August 13 2025
Transcription
Lieutenant-Commander Mike St-Pierre: There are a number of key objectives we're working on. First and foremost is to respond to the live mine threat within the Black Sea region. On top of that is working with Romanians to build interoperability and tactics, training, and procedures with our Romanian partners to not only deal with the mine threat but look at more contingency operations within the region.
Sailor 1st Class, Aaron Clark: Some of the most memorable experiences so far have been the pouncer operations that we've done with our Romanian partners. Getting up inside the boomer helicopters, jumping and conducting hoisting. On this deployment, I am a clearance diving technician, I can supervise the CABA (compressed air breathing apparatus) diving as well as conduct explosive ordnance disposal operations. The best part of deployment for me so far is putting those skills into use, becoming more proficient as a group.
Lieutenant Thomas: Our interactions with the Canadian and Romanian divers were excellent throughout the two weeks of exercises. It was a great opportunity for us to work as a team and test our interoperability with other nations. Two Remus AUVs, providing significant search capabilities, were a notable strength for the Canadians during this exercise. A large detachment. This allowed us to work together, particularly on search operations using AUVs.
Lieutenant-Commander Mike St-Pierre: Training and operating within this environment is a huge benefit to the RCN and the Canadian Armed Forces.