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Sunday, April 16, 2023 Vol. 18 No. 181
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PHL, US troops to spice up yearly ‘Balikatan’ exercise with live-fire drill, sinking of BRP Pangasinan
BLAST THAT SHIP: READY, AIM, FIRE!
F
By Rex Anthony Naval
OR the first time in their 38-year history, Filipino and American forces participating in this year’s “Balikatan” (literally means shoulder-toshoulder) exercise will be using all their available weapons to bombard and sink a decommissioned World War II-era corvette this coming April 26.
US soldiers carry a Javelin shoulder-launched antitank missile past a US M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during a joint military exercise called “Balikatan,” at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, Thursday, April 13, 2023. (Top photo) A Filipino soldier launches a Javelin shoulder-launched anti-tank missile. This year’s Balikatan exercises between the treaty allies are the largest since the two sides started joint military combat-readiness exercises in the early 1990s. AP/AARON FAVILA
“Every weapons system of the AFP and the United States will be [utilized, including] their HIMARS [High Mobility Artillery Rocket System]. My only hope is it [ex-BRP Pangasinan] does not sink until we utilize all our weapons systems,” Logico added. Logico said the Sinkex would show that the AFP is “capable” of conducting combined arms operations with its services and its allies. “It demonstrates that we are competent in employing combined arms and joint capabilities, we are demonstrating that we are combat ready, we have that capacity to deliver fires on a target, from the land, from the air and from the sea,” he stressed.
THE World War II-era BRP Pangasinan (PS-31) at CARAT Philippines 2011. US NAVY
This was confirmed by Col. Michael Logico, Executive Agent of Balikatan 2023 Philippines, shortly after the opening ceremonies of the annual Philippines and US military exercise held at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, on Monday April 11, 2023. Logico said the decision to undertake a “sinking exercise,” also known as “Sinkex” in military parlance, was done in line with the goal of “doing something different” every year. “Every year, we have to do something different, so in the previous Balikatans we would [undertake] exercises [with] the Army and the Air Force through a live-fire: what we [had] never done before is to exercise all three components, Army, Navy, Air Force. We cannot [hold the] exercise [for] the Navy in Crow Valley [in Tarlac] or Fort Magsaysay [in Nueva Ecija] because
[both provinces are] landlocked area[s] so we really have to go to the littoral areas,” he added. And to ensure that these services will not just fire their weapons at the waters sans any particular target, Logico said they decided to simulate a threat coming from the sea. “They [Balikatan participants] have to fire at a target, closer to what we would expect in actual threat, which is an intrusion coming from an adversary by sea. How will they do that? They will do it through a Navy ship so we will provide the target, and the target to sink is PS-31 [ex-BRP Pangasinan], which was decommissioned in March 2021. It is a very old Philippine Navy ship,” Logico explained. The BRP Pangasinan is a former US Navy patrol craft escort constructed in 1943 and donated to the Philippines in 1948. It served
A US trooper shows a Carl Gustaf recoilless anti-tank rifle to a Filipino soldier. AP/AARON FAVILA
the Philippine Navy for 73 years before it was decommissioned. The Sinkex will take place on April 26, in an area some 12 nautical miles off San Antonio, Zambales, well within Philippine ter-
ritorial waters. Logico said every available weapons system of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and participating US units will be brought to bear in this exercise.
PBBM gets Sinkex briefing
LOGICO also said that he also briefed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. about the April 26 Sinkex along with an invite to witness the event first hand. He added that the Chief Ex-
ecutive seems “excited” about the Sinkex and expressed willingness to come to watch the exercise. “I briefed the President myself, he said, yes, he’ll be coming,” Logico said. And when asked if China was discussed in his briefing or its activities in disputed waters, the military official said they did not. “I don’t recall discussing China with him, we did not discuss China,” Logico said. Also, he said that the exercise merely intends to demonstrate the combat readiness of the AFP and not anything else. “Any exercise that we do is a demonstration of combat readiness, that interpretation may mean different things depending on who you ask, to us it is a demonstration of confidence that we can actually perform and execute our mandate,” Logico explained. He hastened to add, however, that the training might be construed differently from the point of view of possible adversaries. “If you are the adversary, it is a deterrence but we are just performing this exercise for the value of the training it provides, which is an opportunity for us to operate and to exercise together with our friends and allies,” Logico stressed.
‘Balikatan’ not related to Taiwan issue
BALIKATAN Philippine Exercise Director Maj. Gen. Marvin Licudine said the annual exercise, which runs from April 11 to 28, is in no way related to the ongoing tension in Taiwan or the simmering maritime territorial dispute in the South China Sea with Beijing. “The Balikatan exercise will not in any way affect the tensions going on around us, particularly Taiwan or in the South China Sea because the Balikatan is a [yearly] activity of the US and the AFP as part of the Mutual Defense Board and the Security Engagement Board, and the MDT [Mutual Defense Treaty],” he pointed out. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 55.2700 n JAPAN 0.4170 n UK 69.2478 n HK 7.0412 n CHINA 8.0475 n SINGAPORE 41.8047 n AUSTRALIA 37.4896 n EU 61.0678 n KOREA 0.0424 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.7355 Source: BSP (April 14, 2023)