THE Philippines and the United States will hold next week what they described as the “most expansive” Balikatan military exercises in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), among other areas, with more than a dozen countries serving as observers in the largest bilateral exercises.
The US Embassy in the Philippines said at least 16,000 troops from the Philippines and the US will show their joint forces before observers from Brunei Darussalam, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.
For the first time, troops from the French Navy will also join the drills, along with contingents from the Australian Defence Force.
The exercises, called Balikatan or “shoulder to shoulder,” will be held from April 22 to May 10.
During the war games, participating troops will execute a range of complex missions across domains, including maritime security, sensing and targeting, air and missile defense, dynamic missile strikes, cyber defense, and information operations, the embassy said.
The Philippine Navy, the US Navy, and the French Navy will also conduct a Multilateral Maritime Exercise in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the West Philippine Sea that is claimed by China to be part of its territorial waters.
“Each year, we work closely with AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) senior leaders to make Balikatan more challenging. This year, we’ve increased the scope, scale, and complexity across all domains,” said Lt. Gen. William Jurney, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces in the Pacific.
“We’re building military readiness across the full range of combined and joint operations. It’s our most expansive Balikatan yet,” he added.
This year’s Balikatan, which is on its 39th iteration, was organized into three main exercises.
The field training exercise features four combined joint all-domain operations, which include the following: exercises in protecting key terrain in Luzon and Palawan in support of territorial defense; rapidly moving long range, precision strike capabilities and using them in targeting simulated threats; tracking simulated air threats and targeting them with multiple air and missile defense systems; and integrating multilateral air and land platforms to increase awareness of the maritime security situation.
The embassy statement said the exercise forces will be concluded by targeting simulated enemy forces and sinking an “enemy” ship.
The command-and-control exercise includes the following: a cyber defense exercise to strengthen bilateral defense capabilities that protect critical military and civilian information infrastructure; a staff planning exercise to increase bilateral planning proficiency by developing the plan for next year’s iteration of Balikatan; and the inaugural information warfare exercise where Philippine and U.S. forces engaged in a week-long war game on April 1 to synchronize capabilities and advance both nations’ information operations skills.
The AFP and the US civil-military operations task force have been conducting humanitarian civic assistance activities at five locations in the western and northern Philippines since late March, with projects expected to be completed by the end of the Balikatan 2024.
“Balikatan is more than an exercise; it’s a tangible demonstration of our shared commitment to each other. It matters for regional peace, it matters for regional stability,” Jurney said.
“When we increase our mutual response and defense capabilities, we strengthen our ability to promote regional security and protect our shared interests,” he stressed.