French Reconnaissance Ship to Enter Black Sea

The intelligence ship, Dupuy de Lome, is scheduled to enter the Black Sea Wednesday for a coordination practice exercise with the American Navy destroyer USS Ross.

Designed for radar monitoring and capable of intercepting communications, including phone calls and e-mails, the Dupuy de Lome had previously been deployed to the Black Sea from April 11 to April 30, 2014.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross  entered the Black Sea on May 23 “to work alongside NATO allies and partners in the region  enhancing interoperability and improving regional security.”

Ross, forward deployed to Rota, Spain, is conducting Naval operations as part of the US 6th Fleet area of operations.

In 2012 Ross was upgraded to RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 capability in order to function as part of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said the US naval presence in the Black Sea often exceeded the time limit provisioned by the Monteux Convention, which sets a 21-day maximum for non-Black Sea nation warships’ presence in the Black Sea.

Another American warship, USS Taylor, earlier violated the terms of the convention by exceeding by 11 days its allowed stay in the Black Sea.