The strike, the culmination of this year’s largest-ever military exercise between the two allies, took place off the western coast of Northern Luzon in the West Philippine Sea, Manila’s name for part of the disputed South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone, was witnessed by journalists and diplomats from sandy coast of Laoag City in Ilocos Norte where the military set up a monitoring platform.
Target of the Philippine, U.S. and Australian military forces integrated land, sea and air assault was the BRP Lake Caliraya – the Philippine Navy’s only Chinese-made naval asset 15 kilometers away from the coast of Laoag.
The assault began with Philippine and U.S. platforms firing various types of ordnance including the C-Star (SSM-700K). The anti-ship missiles (designed and produced by South Korean company LIG Nex1) was launched by the Flagship of the Philippine Navy, BRP Jose Rizal (FF-150). The event marked the very first time the frigate, designed and built by HD Hyundai Industries, launched an anti-ship missile.
The target ship was also struck by a Spike NLOS missile, GBU-38 joint direct attack munitions, and 2.75 inch advanced precision kill weapons system rockets, against the mock target.
Philippine Air Force’s FA-50 fighter jets and United States’ F-16, a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft, also dropped bombs on the target “enemy” ship.
Army Colonel Michael Logico, the Filipino spokesman for the drills said:
“We did it! With the combined strengths of the AFP and US Joint Task Forces, we have successfully engaged BRP Lake Kaliraya,”
“Target sank at 1045 after taking multiple hits. Good job everyone,” he added.
Formerly “MT Lapu-Lapu,” the ship was an oil tanker built by Taizhou Zhongxing Shipyard in China for the Philippine National Oil Company in 2007 and was later converted by the Philippine Navy into its first-ever replenishment vessel before she was decommissioned in 2020.
“For maximum training value, we want to strike the target vessel all day, not to sink it,” said military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla.
Padilla defended their choice of target, saying it was not intentional.
“It’s purely coincidental and it’s really not directed towards the source of such a vessel,” Padilla said.
The 39th edition of Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) involved 16,000 troops – 11,000 from the U.S. and 5,000 from the Philippine side, along with hundreds of troops from Australia and also France for the first time.
U.S. Marine Col. Douglas Krugman, U.S. director of combined coordination center responsible for integrating combined command and control functions between the U.S. and Philippine joint task forces executing the training, said before the strike sensing platforms TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar and the Australian E-7 Wedgetail relayed data to firing units who then launched ordnance at the target.
He said integrating sensor networks was a key component of the exercise and allowed coordinated strikes from multiple platforms.
“We know the lethality and capability of our munitions to sink maritime targets,” said Krugman.
“This exercise was about the collective capability of our combined fire networks and increasing interoperability to sense and shoot targets from a variety of Philippine, U.S. and Australian land, sea and air platforms,”
U.S. Marine Col. Douglas Krugman
The annual exercise is being carried out under the two countries’ Mutual Defense Treaty, a 1951 agreement that calls on both countries to aid each other in times of aggression by an external power. In previous pronouncements, the Pentagon said it was prepared to assist Manila if it invoked the treaty amid threats from other nations.
In February 2023, the Philippines gave the United States access to four new military sites under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between the two countries, a move largely aimed at deterring any potential plan from Beijing to attack Taiwan.
Signed in 2014, EDCA supplements the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a 1999 bilateral pact providing a legal basis for large-scale joint military exercises between the US and Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard deployed two capital ships and their crew to participate in the final leg of the Philippines-United States joint drills.
Rear Admiral Armando Balilo, spokesperson for the PCG, said they deployed BRP Melchora Aquino (MRRV-9702) and BRP Malapascua (MRRV-4403) along with 150 personnel to participate in the historic activity.
“Our task was to secure the perimeter during the Balikatan Exercises to make sure that there would be no intruder, and to provide assistance in case of search and rescue,” he said.
