The "Balikatan" joint Philippine-US military exercise continued in Camp Ernesto Ravina Air Base in Capas, Tarlac on Thursday.

Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the US military conducted a combined arms and live fire exercise.

For the Philippines, it meant testing newly procured equipment such as the Embraer A-29B "Super Tucano" aircraft in a live simulation with US counterparts after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

According to Balikatan exercise Co-director Gen. Charlton Sean Gaerlan, the gap in exercises was a challenge for both parties.

“With interoperability, a two-year gap is really big. We have new troops, we have new commanders. It’s very fortunate that we are able to conduct this again.”

US 25th Infantry Division Deputy Commander for Operations Col. Jeff Vanantwerp said the two-year gap had its effect on the preparations for the live simulation.

“The immediate planning for this, there were some start-up kind of friction because we haven’t done it in several years as you can see we reached a really, really high level of readiness here together in a very short period of time and that really speaks to the enduring partnership that we’ve had," he said.

According to AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Andres Centino: "We’re doing this to improve our interoperability, it’s an opportunity to test our news weapons, armaments. we have used the new tanks we have refurbished. This is one way of ensuring that we can operate jointly with our allies as I’ve mentioned in the opening ceremony, security is always a shared responsibility and it’s important that our capabilities are synchronized with our allies.”

“Two years tayo na di nakapaconduct dahil sa pandemic.
This is significant in a sense as the security environment it’s walsy evolving it’s important that we can address whatever threat that may impact our security environment.”

The 2-hour simulation also included an exercise with the US’ High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

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