30 aircraft, warships to join Balikatan exercise

MANILA, Philippines - Thirty military aircraft of various types, mostly from the United States, and three warships will participate in this year’s joint Philippine-US Balikatan military exercises to be held in various areas in the country this month.

On top of these air and naval assets, 8,000 Filipino and US troops would participate in the joint military drills.

“Military aircraft, naval assets will be seeing action in support of combined Filipino and US ground personnel in the Phl-US Balikatan exercises, which will officially kick off on Friday,” Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said yesterday.

The war games are to be held even as tension grows in the Korea peninsula.

At least 14 US military planes have already arrived at Clark Air Base in Pampanga while six more are arriving this week.

“The air assets will be deployed to support the AFP and US troops joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HA/DR)-focused military training in Central Luzon. They will also provide air logistics support and services to both US and Philippine militaries’ service members on the ground,” Burgos said.

Meanwhile, the only US Navy ship taking part in the annual military exercise docked in Manila Bay yesterday to offload military personnel and equipment for the exercises.

Burgos said that this year’s Balikatan is the 4th HA/DR-focused Bilateral Exercise; the 1st in 2008, the 2nd in 2010, and the 3rd last year.

The annual military exercises are based on the 1951 Phl-US Mutual Defense Treaty.

The exercises are conducted every year to improve combined training between Philippine and US troops.