June 23 (UPI) -- After the massive Baltic Sea BALTOPS 50 training exercise, the USS Thomas Hudner conducted a four-day port visit in Kiel, Germany, the Navy said on Wednesday.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, normally a part of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, arrived in Kiel, on Germany's northern Jutland peninsula, on Tuesday.
"Thomas Hudner's crew was excited to visit Kiel and to experience the great hospitality of our German allies after participating in BALTOPS 50," Cmdr. Bo Mancuso, the ship's commanding officer, said in a press release.
BALTOPS 50, the expanded annual NATO naval exercise, was conducted between June 6 and June 18.
It involved 16 NATO and two partner countries, 40 ships, 60 aircraft and over 4,000 personnel, including NATO's two standing maritime commands.
The exercise included air defense, anti-submarine warfare, amphibious operations, maritime interdiction, mine countermeasure operations and for the first time, defensive cyberwarfare tactics.
Participating nations included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Britain and the United States.
Before the exercise, the USS Thomas Hudner joined the French Navy aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its strike group in the Mediterranean Sea for joint operations and interoperability training.
