Manila, Philippines - The navies of the Philippines and the United States will hold the annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) in Mindanao starting Monday to enhance interoperability and their respective capabilities.
Navy spokesman Col. Oman Tonsay said this year’s CARAT would be held in Mindanao Sea from July 2 to 10.
“With this year’s exercise, the Philippine Navy will be able to enhance combined interoperability capability with the US Navy and the Philippine-US Coast Guards as well as test their personnel and naval assets operational readiness,” Tonsay said.
The activity would also enhance the defense capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) through sharing of knowledge, he added.
The exercise will be held amid an ongoing territorial row between the Philippines and China – perceived to be a rival of the US in the Pacific – over the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.
The military, however, has repeatedly claimed that bilateral exercises with the US are not related to territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
The exercise will include in-port training, subject matter expertise exchanges, ceremonies and interactions; diving and salvage training at General Santos Bay.
It will also feature humanitarian activities like medical, dental and engineering civil action projects and community relations activities in General Santos City and Glan, Sarangani, which was hit recently by flashfloods.
The CARAT will involve the US Navy, US Coast Guard, Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard surface, air, and special operations units.
These units will conduct shore-based cross training exercises, diving exercise, salvage exercise, air operations exercise, and at-sea fleet training exercises, search and rescue exercise.
The Philippine Navy will employ four ships while the US Navy will deploy two. The Philippine and US Coast Guards will employ one ship each.