Philippine and United States armed forces conduct a bilateral amphibious exercise (AMPHIBEX) on March 31, 2022 in the vicinity of Claveria, Cagayan Valley as part of the 37th iteration of Philippine-US Exercise Balikatan. SN2 Mark Jade Autencio PN/AFP handout/File

MANILA — More than showcasing its capabilities, training exercises with the country’s allies and partners help the Armed Forces of the Philippines maintain a high level of readiness in case of a conflict, Balikatan 2024 executive agent Col. Michael Logico said on Wednesday.

“The act of doing exercises is also related to the implied activities of an armed forces. The armed forces have a mandate to defend our territory and there is an adjunct to that mandate which is you have to train for it. For realistic training, we train in areas where realism is provided for,” Logico told reporters during a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines in Quezon City.

“The purpose of the armed forces why we exist is we need to prepare for war. There’s no sugarcoating it. For us not to prepare, that is a disservice to the country,” he continued.

This year’s Balikatan will include a multilateral maritime exercise (MME) by the navies of the Philippines, the US and France—joined by the coast guards of Manila and Washington—in the West Philippine Sea.

“Smaller drills” will also be conducted in Batanes, the country’s northernmost island facing Taiwan.

On the possibility that these exercises would irritate and increase tensions with China, Logico said: “With or without China—let’s say, in a parallel universe, China did not exist—we would still be doing these exercises because these are things nations do.”

The annual joint training exercise between the AFP and the US Armed Forces will also focus on testing the Philippines’ Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC) announced by Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. earlier this year.

The concept calls for incorporating all services of the AFP in defending Philippine waters, particularly the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“One thing new about Exercise Balikatan is that it is going to showcase the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept… We are focusing on both the physical and non-physical domain. We are exercising in the area of information warfare and cyber defense,” Logico noted.

READ: Philippines extends invitation to Japan to join Balikatan 2025

FRANCE TO MAKE DEBUT AS BALIKATAN PARTICIPANT

Manila is sending two vessels from the Philippine Navy and one from the Philippine Coast Guard for the MME.

The number of participating ships from the US, meanwhile, has yet to be determined.

France, which is making a debut as a Balikatan participant, is sending a warship to the drills.

The Philippines has no visiting forces agreement with France yet, but Logico said Paris could still join the drills since it will be conducted outside Manila’s territorial waters.

"For the French Navy, they will be bringing in a frigate, so the frigate will not be entering territorial waters. It will be joining the group sail beyond the 12 nautical miles but within our 200-nautical mile EEZ. We will not be seeing the French on the ground. The participants will just be the Navy,” Logico explained.

“We don’t have a SOVFA with France… If you don’t have a SOVFA with another country, then it is legally complicated to put their boots on the ground. But we have an exercise that does not require them to put their boots on the ground, which is the group sail or the multilateral maritime exercise. Because the venue is in our EEZ but beyond our territorial waters, then their presence there could be easily explained as freedom of navigation,” he added.

The official also assured that the possible presence or “intrusion” of Beijing’s vessels during the MME is part of their contingency plans.

“We will conduct the exercise and we are prepared for any contingencies. An intrusion into our exercise area is a possibility but that will pose more problem for the people who want to enter the exercise area, because we are going there with our Navy vessels with the US and French Navy. We are going there prepared. That’s gonna be their problem, not ours,” he said.

US ARMY DEPLOYS MID-RANGE CAPABILITY WEAPON SYSTEM TO PH

For the pre-Balikatan exercise called Salaknib, the US Army sent its ground-based mid-range capability (MRC) missile system to the Philippines. This marks the first deployment of the Typhon Weapons System in the Indo-Pacific.

The MRC launchers can fire the Standard Missile-6 and the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM).

Logico said the MRC will also be used for logistics exercises during the Balikatan.

“The SM6 is a Navy missile. It’s not new. It is a weapon system that has been used normally fired from a destroyer. The US found a way to make it a land-based missile. The launcher is a prototype. The missile itself is not new. It’s been primarily used by the Navy. The exercise we’re doing is a logistics exercise. We are testing the feasibility of bringing this weapon system by air and offloading it towards a secure and established space,” he noted.

He further stressed: “It will not be launched or fired. It is a logistics exercise. We will be firing other systems, but not that one.”

The MRC reached the Philippines aboard the C-17 Globemaster III airframe on April 11. The weapon system is currently in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, according to Logico.