NATO Black Sea Flotilla. A reef in the Turkish Straits

... while 4 additional units should be commissioned by the end of the decade, or even earlier[3]). In the meantime, new ground-based defense systems (including but not restricted to Bastion anti-ship coastal battery and S-400 anti-air system) deployed in Crimea have critically enhanced Russia’s anti-access, area denial (A2/AD) capabilities in the Black Sea basin, forming the so-called “bubble” depicted by General Philip Breedlove[4]. The purpose of Romania’s proposal would be therefore primarily aimed at contesting Russia’s naval supremacy in the Black Sea, and would furthermore extend the US European reassurance initiative (ERI) to the Black Sea maritime theater. By the same token, ...