U.S., Philippines and Allies Conclude Balikatan Drills With Japanese Combat Troops and U.S. Missile Tests

Philippines, Japan, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand completed the 41st edition of the Balikatan military exercises on Friday after nearly three weeks on Luzon, the Philippines' largest island. S. and allied forces practiced repelling an amphibious assault.

Gen. S. Army Pacific, described the objective in an interview. "It's really about 'see, sense, strike and protect,'" he said. "We want to see the enemy first" to repel any attack on the Philippines.

The drills bordered on two of Asia's key flash points — Taiwan and the South China Sea. S. S.

Or its allies. China condemned the Balikatan drills as destabilizing for the region. In response, it sent its own naval task force to conduct live-fire drills east of Luzon. Lt. Gen. Aristotle Gonzalez, head of the Philippine Armed Forces' Northern Luzon Command, said the Philippine Army is transitioning from its usual focus on internal security.

As insurgent and terrorist groups have been weakened, he said, the Philippines is turning to protecting its borders. This year marks the first time that Japan sent combat troops to the Balikatan drills. Japanese troops fired an anti-ship missile for the first time in the Philippines at a decommissioned Philippine corvette during the exercises.

The last time Japanese combat troops set foot on Philippine soil was in 1941 when imperial army soldiers landed about 50 miles south in Vigan City, three days after attacking Pearl Harbor. Col. Sho Tomino, who commands a Japanese amphibious regiment, said his unit can participate because a Japan-Philippines agreement took effect last year allowing joint military training in each other's countries.

"Despite the language barrier, through this series of exercises, by working side by side and shoulder to shoulder, I firmly believe that we can conduct operations together," he said. S. Army's 25th Infantry Division operated between the Philippine and Japanese troops.

Maj. Gen. James B. S. deployed Typhon missile systems capable of hitting targets on China's mainland from the Philippines. S. troops used the Typhon system for the first time in the Philippines to fire a Tomahawk cruise missile during the Balikatan drills from a civilian airport; the missile carried a dummy warhead and landed on a military reservation.

Gen. Ronald Clark sought to frame the activity as strictly defensive. "It's not about escalation. "What you're looking at on this beachhead is a defense in depth.

Anna Malindog-Uy, secretary-general of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding, offered a different assessment of the Typhon deployment. "Yes, Typhon may enhance deterrence, but it also raises the Philippines' exposure to great-power conflict," she said. " Npr reported on the full scope of the exercises, the participants' statements and China's parallel drills.