2023 Philippines-US Balikatan exercise not targeted toward any country — spox

ZAMBALES CITY, Philippines — A spokesperson for the 2023 Balikatan exercise between the Philippines and the United States said on Wednesday that the allies' largest-ever military drills are not targeted toward China or any other country.

"The message that we are trying to send is that the alliance is alive and that we are always challenging ourselves, so one Balikatan is always going to be harder and more complex than the previous Balikatan,” Col. Michael Logico told the press after the Combined Joint Littoral Live-Fire Exercise held in San Antonio, Zambales. 

He explained that there will always be something different in every Balikatan iteration with the goal of avoiding staleness of the exercise and challenging both the United States and Philippines’ capabilities to operate at different levels and complexities.

“In every exercise that we do, the objective is really to train. We train together because we want to take advantage also of our treaty obligations,” Logico said, adding that it would be “stupid” not to not to use such an advantage.

The live-fire exercise was held at the Naval Education, Training and Doctrine Command, where about 1,400 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and coast guardsmen participated from both countries.

The exercise involved detecting, identifying, targeting, and engaging a target ship using ground and air-based weapons systems.

The United States and Philippine weapons systems delivered coordinated fires on BRP Pangasinan, a decommissioned Philippine vessel, 12 nautical miles off the coast of Zambales. 

The site is around 180 kilometers from Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal), where Chinese Coast Guard ships are deployed. It was the first time the countries had conducted a joint live-fire exercise in the hotly contested waters, which China claims almost entirely.

Logico, however, noted that the US and Philippine militaries did not fire the missiles and artillery toward Scarborough Shoal.

The soldiers deployed assets including an MQ-9 Reaper, which collects intelligence against targets using wide-range sensors. The MQ-9 Reaper was used to observe and assess the shots fired by the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) from the coast.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attended the exercise, watching along with US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson, Defense Officer in Charge Senior Undersecretary Carlito Galvez and Ilocos Norte - 1st District Rep. Sandro Marcos.

It was the first time in 12 years that a Philippine president attended the annual joint military drills, showing close defense cooperation with the US. The last time that the country’s leader attended a Balikatan event was in April 2011, when former President Benigno Aquino III witnessed the exercise in Nueva Ecija. 

Marcos is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House next week to discuss among other things the growing tension over the South China Sea and Taiwan.

The littoral live-fire exercise is the final field training of the three-week long Balikatan drills, where over 17,000 soldiers from the US, the Philippines, and Australia participated. — with a report from Agence France-Presse