PHILIPPINE soldiers will train on the US military’s intermediate range missile system during unilateral army drills next month as part of preparations for bigger exercises with US counterparts, a military official said on Tuesday.
A platoon of about 20 Filipino soldiers from the army artillery regiment will train with the US Army Pacific’s First Multi-Domain Task Force on the Typhon missile system in mid-February, Philippine army spokesperson Louie Dema-ala said.
The exercise will focus on the “payload delivery system” and will highlight the system’s capabilities, he said, adding that it would not include live-fire exercises. “As long as the MRC (mid-range capability) is here, we maximize its utilization to train our personnel with these new technologies,” he told a news briefing.
The Typhon missile system was deployed by US forces to the Philippines in April last year as part of their Balikatan or “shoulder-to-shoulder” military exercises, and has since stayed in the country, angering China which has repeatedly called for its withdrawal.
The launchers have been redeployed to a new location in the Philippines that officials declined to disclose, Reuters reported last week.
Tomahawk cruise missiles used in the launchers can hit targets in both China and Russia from the Philippines. The SM-6 missiles it also carries can strike air or sea targets more than 200 km away.
The Philippines last year expressed interest to acquire the launchers as part of its modernization program.
Philippine military spokesperson Francel Margareth Padilla-Taborlupa on Tuesday said preparations were under way for this year’s annual Balikatan exercises, which are billed to be one of the biggest.
Security engagements between the Philippines and treaty ally the US have intensified in recent years, as both countries aim to counter what they see as an increasingly assertive China.
Strong ties between the two are expected to continue under US President Donald J. Trump, whose Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the Philippines under their decades-old Mutual Defense Treaty.
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) accused a Chinese vessel of shadowing its ship that was trying to rescue a distressed fishing boat near the Zambales coast.
It said China Coast Guard-3304’s shadowing efforts had hindered BRP Cabra from retrieving the body of a deceased fisherman from the boat.
Upon reaching the fishing boat 70 nautical miles (129.6 kilometers) southwest of Silanguin Island, Zambales, the team manning BRP Cabra “discovered that the fisherman had no pulse and was already deceased.”
“To transport the body of the fisherman back to Subic, Zambales, BRP Cabra bravely navigated through the heavy waves to retrieve the deceased using its crane,” it said.
“Chinese Coast Guard vessel CCG 3304, despite being aware of the distress call from the Filipino fishermen, engaged in shadowing that hindered the PCG vessel’s efforts to recover the body.”
DEFENSE ECOZONEMeanwhile, Senator Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said the Senate’s approval on Monday of a bill that seeks to set up a one-stop economic hub in Bataan for defense industry investors would fast-track Manila’s goal of developing a self-reliant defense posture and boosting the local production of raw materials.
“This approval will go a long way towards developing a fully self-reliant defense posture, where our armed forces are supplied by our own homegrown defense industry,” the senator, who sponsored Senate Bill No. 2900, said in a statement.
“In the interest of self-reliance and in line with our Filipino-first policies, we made sure to require that special defense economic zone locators acquire a percentage of their raw materials from local producers,” he said.
The measure will set up a 370-hectare special defense economic zone in Limay, Bataan and give locators value-added tax exemptions for imports and local purchases and an income tax holiday.
These defense industry companies must pay a 5% final tax on their gross income, to be shared by Bataan province, the Special Defense Economic Zone Authority and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for its pension fund.
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in October signed into law a bill that seeks to boost the country’s defense program through investments in local defense equipment and manufacturing amid tensions with China.
It allows the Defense department to develop a self-reliant defense posture program that will encourage manufacturers to produce weapons and defense systems in the country for local use and exports. It will give the agency P1 billion in funding.
Manila and Beijing have repeatedly clashed in the South China Sea, accusing each other of aggressive behavior involving their ships and of damaging the marine environment.
The Philippines, one of the weakest in the world in terms of military capability, is important to Washington’s efforts to push back against China, which claims the South China Sea almost in its entirety. — John Victor D. Ordoñez and KATA with Reuters