A combined force of Philippine, American and Australian troops in Palawan defeated a simulated amphibious invasion during Balikatan 2025’s coastal defense drill on the South China Sea earlier this week.
Alongside a contingent from Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, U.S. Army High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, Australian Javelin anti-tank missile teams, and a Philippine Navy boat attack division participated in the live-fire drill against a “simulated seaborne intrusion” on Monday. The activity repeated a similar event during last year’s KAMANDAG and Balikatan exercises in the South China Sea-facing province. The Palawan-based coastal defense activity is one of the six combined joint all-domain operations slated for this year’s Balikatan iteration.
According to Balikatan’s organizers, these field training exercises aim to simulate a “full battle test” of Philippine military capabilities alongside forces from the U.S., Australia, and, for the first time, Japan. Monday’s event at Rizal began with a formation of five Philippine Navy fast attack craft firing away at maritime targets with cannons and Spike-ER anti-tank missiles. The Acero-class patrol gunboats BRP Lolinato To-Ong (PG 902) and BRP Domingo Deluana (PG 905) and three multipurpose assault craft also targeted a maneuvering Hammerhead unmanned surface vessel with missiles.
HIMARS from the Army’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force traveled 150 miles to reach the training area and fired six training rounds at a maritime target. The launchers utilized landing craft and C-130s to reach Palawan from Subic Bay, where the unit then maneuvered through jungle environments to get on the western side of the island, according to an Army news release.
“This was the U.S. Army’s opportunity to demonstrate the capability … by placing land-based fires into relevant positions to support territorial defense in support of a mutual defense ally,” Lt. Col. Ben Blane, the commander of 1st Multi-Domain Task Force’s Long-Range Fires Battalion, said in the release.
Dug-in Philippine, Australian and U.S. forces also engaged with small arms, crew-served weapons and anti-tank rockets.
The coastal defense activity comes amid a renewed round of tensions between Beijing and Manila over the disputed South China Sea. Last week, Chinese and Philippine forces landed on multiple features to assert their maritime jurisdiction over a series of sandbars near Manila’s Thitu Island and Beijing’s artificial island base at Subi Reef. Multiple rounds of competing maritime drills from Chinese and Philippine forces have occurred across the South China Sea within the last week, one of which included considerable U.S. Pacific Air Forces and Marine Corps aviation through the inclusion of a B-1B bomber and Clark-based F/A-18 Hornets.
Balikatan 2025’s maritime strike activity is set to occur this week off Western Luzon in the West Philippine Sea, a portion of the South China Sea that Manila designates as its exclusive economic zone.
