A few days before United States and Philippine forces began their largest annual military exercises dubbed “Balikatan 34-2018”, American broadcaster CNBC quoted intelligence sources as saying that China has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles on contested territories at the Spratly Island chain. CNBC said the missiles could strike both US and other foreign navy vessels and military planes that regularly overfly the area.
US Balikatan Exercise Director Lt. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson quickly clarified that this year’s Balikatan is not connected in any way to reports claiming that Chinese missiles systems have been installed in several reefs and islets in the South China Sea. He said: “This exercise was scheduled whether those missiles were there or not, and again this is a region of change, there are constant things developing within the region but the exercise has long been planned, you know we are already, probably two weeks from now we are talking about next year’s Balikatan and you can imagine all the things that will occur in the theater between now and then.”
Philippine Balikatan exercise Director Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat, meanwhile, said the exercises are intended to provide training opportunities for both armed forces. “Balikatan 34-2018 is a significant military exercise where the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US military primarily shared a commitment in moving together to contribute to our country’s security, stability and development. This is an annual activity particularly aimed at the Philippine-US partnership, cooperation and commitment to Mutual Defense Treaty,” he said.
In this year’s Balikatan exercises, 5,000 soldiers, marines, airmen and sailors from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and 3,000 servicemen from the US Marines, Navy, Air Force and Special Operations Force will participate in the two-week maneuvers that started on May 7 and will end on the 18th. Around 20 personnel from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and 60 from the Australian Defense Forces will also cooperate as observers.
Although this is the largest annual US-Philippine military exercises since President Duterte came to power and vowed to scale down America’s military presence in the country, Philippine officials said they are not aimed at China but at the threat of urban terrorism and other man-made crises and natural disasters. In addition to amphibious beach landings, live-fire maneuvers and disaster-response scenarios, the exercises will involve combat drills in mock urban settings to train special forces in battling terrorists in cities, much like the Marawi siege.
Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana said this year’s Balikatan focuses on interoperability training to address traditional and nontraditional security concerns. He said: “Through this exercise, we hope to improve our counterterrorism capabilities in order to build safer communities and work toward the eradication of global terror networks. We hope that through this activity we will have a stronger teamwork, while we endeavor to achieve our common vision of developing long-term cooperation and effective inter-operability between the Philippines and the United States and our allies.”
Apart from combat drills and counterterrorism activities, this year’s Balikatan will also focus on enhancing our military’s capability for humanitarian assistance and disaster response. As such, Filipino soldiers participating in this exercise must make the most of this opportunity to learn from their American, Japanese and Australian counterparts.