The Philippine Navy (PN) and the United States Navy (USN) will be conducting a series of joint naval exercises starting October 2 to 12 aimed at enhancing the interoperability and warfighting skills of the two services.
These maneuvers will be held at the Naval Forces Southern Luzon area-of-operations, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto said in a statement Wednesday.
The drills are formally known as the “PH-US Exercise Samasama,” he added.
“Samasama is a bilateral exercise between the USN and the PN that aims to further strengthen international defense cooperation and advance a rules-based international order,” Ileto stressed.
He added that these activities were designed to further enhance the PN’s naval warfare capabilities as the country’s offshore combat force for maritime security operations.
“They will cover the fundamentals of anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-air warfare, and electronic warfare,” Ileto pointed out.
Meanwhile, interoperability exercises with the USN will focus on warfighting serials.
The training will also strive to further improve maritime integration and combined interoperability with the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force, Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Canadian Navy, and the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy through subject-matter expert exchanges (SMEEs) and humanitarian assistance and disaster response table-top events.
“The French Navy and Royal Australian Navy will send personnel to join the SMEEs, while the Royal New Zealand Navy and Indonesian Navy will be in the exercise as observers,” Ileto said.
He added that Terms of Reference with the participating non-Status of Visiting Forces Agreement Partner countries were already approved and signed in accordance with Philippine laws.
