Filipino soldiers then fired missiles geared toward destroying the attackers before each forces finished the job with machine guns, Javelin missiles and more artillery shells.
Lt. Gen. Michael Cederholm, commander of the U.S. 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the exercise was intended to “prepare for the worst” by “securing key maritime areas.” “It’s intended to repel an invasion,” Cederholm told reporters on the training ground.
“Our northwest side is more exposed,” Maj. Gen. Marvin Licudine, the Filipino exercise director, says before firing on the La Paz dunes near town of Laoag.
“Because of the regional problems that we have… we have to already practice and orient ourselves in our own country in these parts,” he added.
It deploys lots of of coast guard, navy and other ships to patrol and militarize the waters.
More than 16,700 Filipino and U.S. troops participate in annual military exercises – called Balikatan, or “shoulder to shoulder” in Tagalog – in multiple locations throughout the Asian archipelago. This yr’s exercises will last until Wednesday.
The ministers “discussed opportunities to further develop defense cooperation” and “work together to support countries exercising their rights and freedoms within the South China Sea.”
The U.S. Marine Corps said the exercise was an try to rapidly deploy a missile system on the Philippines’ South China Sea coast to “secure and protect maritime lands, territorial waters and the interests of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone.”
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Friday it had detected 26 Chinese planes and five warships across the self-ruled island previously 24 hours.
“To some extent, military exercises are a form of deterrence,” Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said in remarks delivered on his behalf by an adviser during a public workshop on Friday.
“The more we simulate, the less we trigger,” he added.
