12,000 troops to join largest PH-US Balikatan

by Michael Punongbayan Philstar.com

MANILA — Some 12,000 American soldiers will be arriving in the country in the next few weeks to participate in the 2023 Balikatan Exercises, which will be the biggest joint training event between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the United States military.

This year’s activities will also, for the first time with U.S. troops, involve live-fire exercises, specifically in the waters of Zambales.

Col. Michael Logico, director of the Joint and Combined Training Center under the AFP Education, Training and Doctrine Command and spokesman for Balikatan 2023, said around 17,600 Filipino and U.S. soldiers are set to join this year’s joint training exercises.

Around 12,000 of the soldiers will come from the U.S. military while the rest will be from the AFP, along with about 100 from the Australian Defense Force who will be joining some of the events for the first time.

April 11 to 28 with events in various locations in Northern Luzon, Palawan and Antique.

“Yes, this is officially the largest Balikatan Exercise,” he said, noting that the event would be “an interoperability exercise to test our concepts for maritime defense, for coastal defense and maritime domain awareness.” as preparation for hostilities with China.

He added that this year’s iteration of the joint military training between Filipino and American soldiers would also include cyber defense exercise.

Events would also be held “outside our traditional training areas,” Logico said.

“Part of it is we’re going to be doing live fire exercises into the water. So it’s practically, we’re exercising in key locations where we are able to utilize all our service components,” he said.

Only the Air Force and the Army were participants in previous exercises, he said.

“We are here to practice, we are here to show that we are combat ready,” he pointed out.

Logico said the U.S. military would be bringing in military assets including ships and aircraft.

Training facility

Australia, meanwhile, has donated a new training facility for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) in Capas, Tarlac.

Acting Defense Undersecretary Angelito de Leon led the official acceptance of the Close Air Support Part Task Trainer, Classroom and Debriefing Facility on Monday, March 13.

The facility will be assigned to the Air Force’s 710th Special Operations Wing (SPOW).