Members of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment fire an M-777 howitzer during a Balikatan drill at the La Paz Sand Dunes in Laoag, Philippines, May 6, 2024. (Stars and Stripes)
A multinational force, including U.S. Marines, is preparing for a “full battle test” involving 16,000 troops during this year’s Balikatan exercise in the Philippines, a Marine Corps spokesman said.
Balikatan — a Tagalog word meaning “shoulder to shoulder” — is scheduled to run from April 21 to May 9, Marine 2nd Lt. Ben Gillman, a spokesman for the exercise, told Stars and Stripes by phone Wednesday.
Ten thousand U.S. troops will participate in the drills, now in their 40th year, alongside 6,000 service members from the Philippines, Australia and Japan, he said.
That’s close to the number of troops who took part in last year’s exercise.
This year’s edition will feature a large-scale battle simulation designed to test “combined capabilities in highly realistic scenarios,” Gillman said in an email Tuesday. The exercise highlights modernization efforts between the U.S. and Philippine armed forces, he added.
The battle simulation is an indication of just how seriously Indo-Pacific Command is taking the Chinese threat in the region, according to retired Marine Col. Grant Newsham, a senior researcher with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
“The Chinese have been giving the Filipinos a hard time and have seized some Philippine maritime territory and are even claiming Palawan as belonging to China,” he said in an email Wednesday.
The Philippines — Washington’s oldest security ally in Asia — has faced repeated incidents involving China’s coast guard in the disputed South China Sea. Manila has accused Beijing of ramming its vessels, flashing lasers at its crews and buzzing fishermen with helicopters in an effort to assert territorial claims in the Philippines exclusive economic zone.
Soldiers with the 25th Infantry Division walk toward a CH-47F Chinook helicopter during a Balikatan air-assault drill on Batan Island, Philippines, May 5, 2024. (Stars and Stripes)
Balikatan underscores the U.S. commitment to its treaty ally and its ability to assist in a potential conflict.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro spoke last year at Camp Aguinaldo about plans for a Balikatan battle test.
The exercise would include a “full battle simulation, which will put to the test the combined capabilities in the most realistic of scenarios possible, with safety in mind,” he said May 10, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.
Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, also spoke about the plan after an Aug. 29 meeting with Philippine armed forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner at the Philippine Military Academy.
Previous Balikatan exercises focused on smaller, individual training events, but this year’s drills will “be the largest Balikatan we’ve ever done,” Paparo told reporters after the meeting, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Aug. 30.
U.S. forces will include units from I Marine Expeditionary Force, the 1st Marine Division, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and the 1st Marine Logistics Group out of California; the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment from Hawaii; and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing from Japan, Gillman said.
The exercise will take place primarily on Luzon and Palawan and include activities at several sites covered under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows the U.S. to build facilities and store supplies and equipment at nine spots across the Philippines.
The drills will open at Camp Aguinaldo and feature air- and missile-defense training at the Naval Education Training and Doctrine Command near Subic Bay, Gillman said.
The U.S. and Philippine navies, along with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, will conduct a joint sail outside Philippine territorial waters along the coast of Luzon, April 26-29, he said.
On April 28, U.S. and Philippine forces will hold a live-fire drill on Palawan, simulating a counterattack on a hostile landing force, Gillman said.
