WATCH: Philippines, US marines hold amphibious landing exercise in Zambales

ZAMBALES, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United States Armed Forces on Wednesday conducted an amphibious landing exercise at the Naval Education and Training Command in Zambales as part of the annual Balikatan exercise.

The amphibious landing exercise was conducted to allow military forces to practice transporting troops from ship to shore under hazardous circumstances.

During the exercise, four amphibious assault vehicles from the US Marines carried a combined platoon of US and Philippine marines from the beach of San Antonio Zambales.

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The combined platoon then went around the Philippine Navy's BRP Davao del Sur and returned to the shore for the marines to practice assault onto the beach.

"One of the goals of this exercise is to improve rapid deployment and interoperability of forces during military operations in a hostile shore," Philippines exercise director Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Salamat told reporters.

This year's joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US focus on counterterrorism and mutual defense.