United States navy Sixth Fleet flagship USS Mount Whitney docked in the Bulgarian port of Varna on November 8  2008 to officially kick off the multinational Black Sea Partnership Cruise (BSPC) which commenced on November 10. This is a joint Nato exercise in which Bulgarian naval detachments will participate alongside with the United States Naval Forces Europe - Command of the US Sixth Fleet.

"It is a privilege to be operating in the Black Sea again," said task force commodore Captain John W. Moore, commander, Task Force 67. "The humbling experience I had delivering humanitarian aid to the Georgian people and the engagement opportunities I've had with other Black Sea nations have reinforced my understanding of the significant impact our partnerships have, both personally and professionally. The Black Sea Partnership Cruise is a key gateway for these relationships to flourish." he said in the official US department of defence website.

The joint naval exercise will be executed with participating naval units from Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the United States. The forces will execute six-day, at-sea, interactive mutual training and tactics, while Mount Whitney will serve the role as the  BSPC vessel for the makeshift international fleet.

"By having all these sailors from different nations attending BSPC, we will give them common ground and common knowledge to work with, so if they do find themselves working with each other in the theatre, they can look back at what they learned here and work together on a real-world situation," said Greek army Warrant Officer Nikolaos Bouras, a visit, board, search and seizure instructor for BSPC.

The USS Mount Whitney (LCC/JCC 20), a Blue Ridge class command ship, and currently is on active duty and serves as the flagship of the US navy's Sixth Fleet. She is also the command and control ship for the Commander Joint Command Lisbon and the Commander Striking Force Nato.

She was classified as the LCC-20 on January 1 1969 and shortly afterwards the construction of the vessel commenced. She was laid down on January 6 by Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, Newport News, Virginia. The warship bears the name of Mount Whitney, the 14 500-foot  summit, which is the most prominent summit of the  Sierra Nevada mountain range of California as well as the entire continental US, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

She is claimed to be one of the most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence  ships to be  commissioned in service by the US navy. And as a multi task, modern vessel, Mount Whitney incorporates various elements of the most advanced command, control and intelligence equipment, allowing the Joint Task Force Commander the capability to effectively command all units under any task force deployed in any theatre of operations.