U.S. and Philippine military forces launched their largest joint combat exercises in decades on Tuesday.
The exercises will run until April 28 in the South China Sea, which China has long claimed almost total sovereignty over, per AP News.
China has been in conflict with nations such as the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam since the 1970s over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. These tend to center on the Spratly Islands, which are rich in oil, natural gas, and fish.
Since last year China has stepped up its efforts to force its claims on the region, militarizing islands as well as creating new ones by dredging up and pouring sand over existing coral reefs.
In February, one of China’s naval vessels fired a military-grade laser at the Philippine coast guard, as The Dallas Express reported. This is one of many Chinese acts of intimidation and harassment that other nations in the region claim have occurred.
Within this context, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has taken steps to safeguard the country’s own territorial claims in the South China Sea.
He has approved greater access of U.S. forces to the country’s military bases and is pursuing a visiting forces agreement with Japan.
The ongoing Balikatan (meaning “shoulder-to-shoulder” in Tagalog) exercise is the largest seen since its inception three decades ago, per AP News. It involves approximately 17,600 soldiers, including 12,200 from the U.S., 5,400 from the Philippines, and 111 from Australia.
This exercise will showcase U.S. military might, involving fighter jets, warships, HIMARS rocket launchers, and anti-tank Javelins.
The drill will involve a coordinated inland, coastal, and air live-fire strike to sink a target off the western coast.
Col. Michael Logico, a Philippine spokesman for Balikatan, told reporters, “We have to fire at a target that is closer to what we would expect in an actual threat, which is an intrusion coming from an adversary by sea. We are demonstrating that we are combat ready,” per AP News.
They will also practice retaking an island that has been captured by enemy forces.
Noting the importance of “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Lloyd Austin, the U.S. secretary of defense, explained in a news release on April 12 that this year’s largescale Balikatan is meant to strengthen the alliance between the U.S. and the Philippines as well as step up its measures of deterrence.
“As we’ve made abundantly clear, the mutual defense treaty applies to armed attacks on either of our armed forces, or public vessels or aircraft anywhere in the South China Sea,” Austin said, per the news release.
The U.S. engaged in another joint-military exercise with South Korean forces last month with the same purposes in mind, as The Dallas Express reported. Freedom Shield, as it was dubbed, ran for 11 days and was accompanied by several test missile firings by North Korea, whose leaders took the drills as a threat of invasion.
