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Annual Balikatan exercise catapults Philippine-U.S. alliance into a new era

FORUM Staff

IN a simulated defense scenario, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and United States troops amphibiously landed several Patriot surface-to-air missile systems on a northern Luzon beach in the Philippines and then transported them to inland sites. Off Luzon’s northern coast, Philippine Black Hawks and U.S. Apache and Chinook helicopters coordinated cross-deck operations at day and night. Meanwhile, combined and joint forces launched high altitude balloons from Central Luzon to rehearse presenting a targeting dilemma for a potential adversary.

Through such robust activities, Balikatan 2022 brought interoperability, partnership and the alliance between the Philippines and the U.S. to new heights. The 37th iteration of the exercise, which ran from March 28 through April 8, 2022, deepened the meaning of the Tagalog phrase for which it’s named — “shoulder to shoulder” — and showcased how the ever-strengthening alliance increases integrated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. 

At the core of Balikatan 2022, an unprecedented, highly realistic command and control exercise helped lay the foundation for a forthcoming, even more sophisticated Balikatan 2023. The overall exercise demonstrated many technological firsts between the militaries and fostered an unrivaled esprit de corps among the aligned troops. The Philippine Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy and special operations forces teamed with the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force and Special Operations Command to conduct an array of combined and joint interoperability events such as an air assault drill, a combined arms live-fire exercise, training in an urban environment and providing humanitarian assistance. About 4,200 AFP and 4,440 U.S. military personnel displayed how using current capabilities, devising new ones and deploying them together in novel, integrated ways enhances deterrence. 

Referring to the AFP’s program to transition the military to an external defense focus, AFP Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hechanova, deputy chief of staff for plans, told FORUM that “we are excited this year because we are able to use some of the equipment that we bought under the modernization program.”

Philippine Marines secure a beach in Claveria, Cagayan province, during Balikatan 2022. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

“Before, we just saw U.S. aircraft or U.S. fighters flying. Now, we are flying together because our FA-50s arrived. Now, we are sailing together because we had some frigates that arrived. We are conducting amphibious operations together because we had some equipment also. We have some air defense equipment that came in. We have some howitzers,” he said during an interview at Camp Aguinaldo, the AFP’s general headquarters in Quezon City on the outskirts of metro Manila, which housed Balikatan’s command center. 

Human Bonds

Balikatan 2022 reflected the strong historical and cultural ties between the Philippines and the U.S. and the nations’ shared commitment to democracy and human rights, which are embodied every day in warm people-to-people relations and strong economic relations. More than 4 million Filipino-Americans live in the U.S., and nearly 300,000 U.S. citizens reside in the Philippines. 

Balikatan’s civic engineering activities — which included building four climate-resilient elementary schools and conducting multiple community health engagements, mainly in northern provinces — highlighted that security is ultimately about empowering local people to achieve what they need to make their society successful. “We were able to strengthen camaraderie between our forces and build relationships among the benefiting communities as well,” especially in Cagayan and Isabela provinces, AFP Col. Arman Mampusti, a planner for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operations who coordinated the projects, told FORUM. “I can personally say that the communities have learned a lot from what we did this year. The basic life-support training, first aid, water and hygiene, and basic survival training will benefit them in times when the skills are needed,” Mampusti said. “I would like to underscore as well, that when everything else has finished, one lasting legacy that Balikatan will leave are the facilities that were built. I would just like for us to imagine how many young boys and girls will use these schools and graduate from them, and how many will benefit when the schools are used as evacuation facilities during storms and other natural calamities.”

Security relations between the Philippines and the U.S. are deeply rooted in protecting such shared values and mutual interests, exercise leaders emphasized. “That has always been the underlying concept of Balikatan, shoulder to shoulder, addressing things together,” Hechanova told FORUM. “It’s a very long history between the Philippines and the U.S. We fought side by side in World War II, we fought side by side in Korea, we fought side by side in Vietnam. This is the history of our armed forces. Balikatan right now is a reflection of how our capabilities are working together to enhance our common security standing here in our part of the world.”

Philippine and U.S. military personnel unload a Patriot missile system from a landing craft on an Aparri beach in the northern Philippines during a combined insertion drill. SGT. MELANYE MARTINEZ/U.S. MARINE CORPS

To promote greater defense cooperation across the region with allies, partners and member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the AFP also hosted and trained with more than 45 Australian special operators.

Command and Control

In a restricted labyrinth of air-conditioned tents surrounded by a barbed-wire perimeter within Camp Aguinaldo, more than 50 Philippine and U.S. combined and joint staff from across the services pored over real-time data, detailing maps and charts for long hours, day after day. The goal: to develop a plan to respond to a hypothetical, yet realistic, external threat to the Philippines’ sovereignty and appraise its probable performance in the battle space. They ran scenarios and conducted war games to continually improve the plan throughout the training. 

The command and control exercise, known as a staff exercise or STAFFEX, enabled the militaries to test a real-world plan for the first time at Balikatan, Col. Michael Logico, director of the AFP’s Joint and Combined Training Center, told FORUM. The STAFFEX portrayed the broader strategic context, including how diplomatic, economic, and political factors and developments affected the crisis. “This will allow us to think of things we haven’t thought of before to unearth some black swans or to determine if practices equal the plans,” Logico said. Black swans are generally unpredictable or unforeseen events that can have extreme consequences. 

The STAFFEX proved invaluable for more than just planning. “What we are focusing in on here is not the plan or the product, but the process that is the most important piece,” Brig. Gen. Brian Wolford, commanding general of the U.S. Marine Corps’ 3rd Marine Logistics Group at Okinawa, Japan, told FORUM. Wolford played the role of the U.S. joint task force commander during the exercise.

“The STAFFEX here allows us to learn a lot of processes, which allows us to compress the time from data, supplied by the chain, to decision,” Brig. Gen. Erick Escarcha, chief of the AFP Command Center, explained. “So, we are really solving a lot,” said Escarcha, who played the role of Philippine joint task force commander in the STAFFEX.

Philippine Marines maneuver their amphibious assault vehicle during the exercise. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

“We’re starting with a relatively simple problem, but next year, we’ll focus on a more complex problem and be able to solve it,” Wolford said. “We take away being able to come together as an ad hoc organization.” Because of COVID-19, Balikatan was dramatically scaled down in 2020 and 2021 to as few as 300 core participants. “What we are doing now is reconstituting what we had, getting us back to where we were before and then continuing to build starting next year,” he said. 

“What we’re learning here is really twofold. Starting with the young Marines, young Soldiers, Filipino and American, it is a chance for us to get exposed to each other on how we do things, capabilities, thought processes and learning how we think,” Wolford said. “For me personally, I really enjoy getting to see how other countries solve problems. It is a different situation, different terrain. There are different variables that you have to deal with. Being exposed to those really helps, not only for planning here but for planning in other locations.”

Balikatan 2023 will be designed around the core product from the 2022 STAFFEX and will build upon the achievements of the overall exercise. During the next iteration, for example, the STAFFEX command authorities will run the command post exercise, Escarcha and Wolford envision.

“I’m looking forward to the point in time when U.S. and Philippines armed forces come together and it’s as simple as plug and play,” Escarcha said. “I liken this to music. All musicians understand each other. They may have met for the first time, but they can sing together and create a harmony.” 

Balikatan, however, is already hitting some high notes beyond combined staff coordination. “On the surface, Balikatan is a platform for improving training, joint operations capabilities, interoperability, all of which contribute to the Philippines’ security,” Logico observed. But the exercise has other purposes. “When you do Balikatan, there is a strategic message that we are sending to our adversaries that we are not alone in this. Anything that we lack, our partners and allies can always come here and bring whatever it is we lack. We are still training together, and the alliance is still as strong as ever.”

Mutual Defense

In the year leading up to Balikatan 2022, Philippine and U.S. leaders advanced their alliance by strengthening their commitments to the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) signed in 1951. In July 2021, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Manila to reaffirm the strong and enduring U.S.-Philippine alliance as the two sides celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations and the 70th anniversary of the MDT. Austin met with then-Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, then-National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to emphasize the centrality of the broad-based Philippine-U.S. partnership within the Indo-Pacific region.

After the meeting, Lorenzana announced Duterte’s decision to continue the nations’ Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which details how military personnel will be treated in each other’s country. “A strong, resilient U.S.-Philippine alliance will remain vital to the security, stability and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. A fully restored VFA will help us achieve that goal together,” Austin said at the time.

A U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter participates in the insertion of a Patriot missile system at an Aparri beach in the northern Philippines in March 2022. SGT. KALLAHAN MORRIS/U.S. MARINE CORPS

In September 2021, Lorenzana traveled to Washington to reciprocate Austin’s visit in celebration of the alliance’s 70th anniversary. He recognized that “this significant milestone amidst current regional development offers a unique opportunity to reaffirm enduring ties that bind our countries.” Lorenzana further stated, “We now have a better appreciation of each other’s defense and security concerns and priorities, and we have come to an understanding of our shared goals for our countries and the region.”

A series of high-level consultations followed. In October 2021, the Mutual Defense Board and Security Engagement Board convened in the Philippines. Soon thereafter, then-AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Jose C. Faustino Jr. and Adm. John C. Aquilino, Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), tasked their respective forces to continue to deepen combined readiness. Since then, military representatives have improved their understanding of the MDT to enhance readiness and ensure the MDT remains responsive to the evolving security landscape in the Indo-Pacific region. “We just need to keep improving on our common understanding of the Mutual Defense Treaty,” Hechanova told FORUM. “Because it’s mutual, there should be a common understanding on the terms, on the procedures, on the in situ construct, on the constructs, on the doctrine. This actually validates the doctrine and the interoperability of both forces in case the MDT is invoked.”

Operationalizing Integrated Deterrence

Aquilino outlined the challenges facing the region in testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on March 10, 2022. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] is executing a dedicated campaign that utilizes all forms of national power in an attempt to uproot the rules-based international order to the benefit of themselves and at the expense of all others,” he said. The PRC’s expansionist actions in the South China Sea, known as the West Philippine Sea in the Philippines, and its ignoring of the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s [PCA’s] ruling in favor of the Philippines over the PRC’s unlawful territorial claims in the South China Sea epitomize the PRC’s disregard for the international rules-based order, he noted in his testimony.

In today’s threat environment, “the adversary is using gray-zone tactics. We need to come up with our own, the Philippines and the U.S. together, in order to counter any gray-zone initiatives of the adversaries,” the AFP’s Hechanova explained. Gray-zone tactics refer to coercive actions that go beyond normal diplomatic, economic and political activities but fall short of armed conflict. 

“The Chinese, the PRC, are using the nuance of the law in exploiting the West Philippine Sea. They know they are sending gray ships in violation of the nuances of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” Hechanova continued. While in office, Duterte “made it very clear when he appeared in the United Nations. He said that the PCA ruling is now part of international law and that the Philippines will always adhere to a rules-based order in the settling of disputes in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

“While the MDT recognizes the key goal of trying to resolve conflicts peacefully, should those efforts not be successful, Balikatan represents the Philippines’ and the U.S.’s primary line of effort to enhance their bilateral ability to respond to any breach of peace or threat of the breach of peace,” explained Scott Weidie, chief of multinational training at USINDOPACOM and the command’s lead for the exercise. “The command’s mission is to prevent conflict through the execution of integrated deterrence and, if necessary, be prepared to fight and win. Balikatan enables the operationalization of a Philippine-U.S. defense that must be ready when called upon.” 

Balikatan 2022 fell in line with Aquilino’s direction to seize the initiative by requiring the joint force to think, act and operate differently. “We are doing this with our Philippine allies by working posture efforts and focusing on joint operational capabilities necessary for the armed forces of the Philippines and U.S. to improve speed of response in a crisis, increase interoperability, improve mission effectiveness and enhance unity of effort,” Weidie said. The nations are advancing their Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to develop the necessary infrastructure to improve bilateral response capabilities and enable the U.S. to operate more flexibly in the Philippines.

Strengthening the alliance “is a continuing activity,” Hechanova said. “We’re continuing to harness both of our potentials in making sure that should a situation come in where we should have to fight together, we are able to do it efficiently.”

Demonstrating Technology, Partnership

Philippine and U.S. forces used Balikatan to experiment with a host of technologies and protocols to improve their combined and joint fighting potentials. “We know that every time that we’re going to go and fight, we are going to fight with friends, partners and allies, and the best way to do that, the way to be most effective if you have to be in a fight, is by establishing relationships well beforehand,” Brig. Gen. James Isenhower, then commander of the U.S. Army’s new Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF), which is the centerpiece of the Army’s modernization, told FORUM. “Advancing technologies with partners and allies is always a critical aspect of building a relationship and building trust. 

“In many ways, we can share our lessons, and it might stimulate them or motivate them to move to a different level of proficiency or build out a capability they may not have had before. That said, we learn as much from them as they learn from us, so we approach it in a very evenhanded manner as genuine partners,” Isenhower said. “Their familiarity with the environment, because they live here, is just something that we don’t have, so just understanding how they think and the perspectives they can bring and their understanding of the history in the region is always valuable and informs us as to how we are going to employ and how we think we can work with them in the environment.” The MDTF participated in Balikatan for the first time in 2022. The two militaries first staged the exercise in 1986.

Balikatan, for example, allowed the AFP and U.S. forces to develop strategic options to counter potential scenarios in the first island chain, such as an anti-access area denial network (A2AD). Such networks present a joint force challenge requiring intense coordination whether the approach is to target a network’s center of gravity or to dismantle an adversary’s capabilities layer by layer. “Those networks are built to prevent power projection. As we develop our capability, the MDTF will become a critical component of the joint force effort to neutralize that A2AD network to create windows and allow the joint force to do what it is already good at,” Isenhower explained. “In an environment like the Indo-Pacific, power projection is a requisite, and technology is critical for power projection. If we don’t have that freedom of action or freedom to maneuver, it really puts us at risk to be able to provide our leaders with strategic options.”

Given the territorial defense requirements of the Philippines, Isenhower said, “the Patriot is a great example of capabilities we can bring to an environment like this to help allies and partners.” During Balikatan, the militaries inserted Patriot equipment amphibiously via a U.S. Navy Landing Craft Air Cushion and moved two Patriot missiles inside a CH-47 helicopter, both of which were firsts, according to Col. Matthew Dalton, then commander of the U.S. Army’s 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, which helped transport the equipment. The Patriot system, which entails radars, missiles, launchers and support vehicles, can track and shoot down enemy missiles and aircraft within nine seconds of launch at a range of up to 70 kilometers.

“Deploying the Patriot to northern Luzon is an example of a very realistic scenario that we could conduct in any number of locations in the Indo-Pacific. Conducting operations in the Philippines enabled us to work with our bilateral partners, rehearse sustaining the force, stress our equipment and perform field-level maintenance in austere conditions,” Dalton said. “Our Soldiers and leadership had to apply creative and critical thinking to overcome unique hurdles that could only appear when deployed a thousand miles from the motor pool.”

Philippine and U.S. forces tested other combined and joint capabilities and technologies, demonstrating new operational proofs of concept between the militaries. AFP and U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) conducted a mock airfield seizure at Cagayan North Airport to refine tactics and procedures to deploy a high mobility artillery rocket system known as HIMARS in tandem with rapid infiltration, or HIRAIN. Once inserted at a site, the missile-based HIMARS is used to engage targets, then quickly loaded back on aircraft and removed from the area before an adversary can return fire. HIMARS can also be landed onshore and deployed against sea-based targets. 

During Balikatan, Philippine and U.S. special operators also engaged in multidomain complex operations to increase interoperability and experimentation in preparation for contingencies beyond countering violent extremist organizations (VEOs). AFP and U.S. SOF executed targets and integrated relevant counter VEO capabilities into a peer adversary environment. Within the air domain, combat air controllers called in 105 mm cannon shots, 30 mm and precision-guided munitions fires from a U.S. Air Force AC-130 onto the Bahasa Range. This marked the first time the AC-130 supported AFP close air support training in the Philippines. 

At Fort Magsaysay and across Luzon, ground SOF training events built upon generational knowledge of unconventional and irregular warfare tactics to further sharpen SOF skills and AFP and U.S. interoperability. The combined force navigated complex targets throughout eastern Luzon, including the infiltration and reclamation of Corregidor Island. Off the coast of Palawan, a multilateral SOF team, including members of the AFP Naval Special Operations Group, Australian commandos and U.S. Navy SEALs, conducted maritime interdiction training, culminating in an air and maritime raid to reclaim a gas and oil platform in the Philippine Sea.

Working with their AFP counterparts on another novel security application, the U.S. Army Pacific and MDTF launched high-altitude balloons from Fort Magsaysay in Central Luzon to test stratospheric capabilities to support maritime domain awareness and contribute to multidomain operations. The bilateral teams flew the unmanned balloons 15,000 to 21,000 meters above sea level, well above the operating altitudes of commercial airlines. The balloons offer a host of defense possibilities, such as creating a stealth aerial constellation to transmit data, including surveillance video, and enhance electronic warfare capacity. 

For the AFP and U.S. forces, Balikatan illustrated the value of experimenting regularly, given many successful technology applications and achievements are made ad hoc or in the midst of an exercise. “Rapid iteration is really important. The more we can iterate with partners and allies, the more we can iterate with joint force, the faster we can achieve a different potential and really inform how we can fight in the out years,” Isenhower explained. “At echelon, it forces an increased comfort and a recognition that we can experiment forward, we can exercise forward and we can do it in a sophisticated and responsible manner, and that builds increased interoperability and confidence between two partners.”

Gaining Momentum

Balikatan 2022 set the stage for building more complex experimental capabilities and an even stronger partnership during Balikatan 2023. For one, the 38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, according to Dalton, is “already looking forward to next year to build upon the great progress we made in air defense and airspace control operations. We discussed future training and integration with the Philippine Air Force Air Defense Command during Balikatan 23,” including with the AFP’s 580th Aircraft Control Warning Wing and 960th Air and Missile Defense Group. “This exercise was our first time engaging with our [38th Air Defense Artillery Brigade’s] partners, opening a new bond of friendship and allowing our units to cross-train and share knowledge about our capabilities,” Dalton said. “We learned how we can work together in times of conflict for credible, agile and lethal defensive fires.”

Balikatan seems assured to be even better in 2023, given the leaps in the growth of the AFP-U.S. military relationship during the 2022 exercise. By all accounts, the nations’ commitment to their MDT and military alliance proved stronger than ever throughout the event. “I consider this year’s Balikatan as a banner year for our forces,” the AFP’s Mampusti said. “After two years of the pandemic, this Balikatan has showcased that no matter the gap in bilateral training activities and current circumstances, our forces are ready, we are flexible, we are interoperable, and we are resilient. This is a testament to our long-standing commitment to our shared history and friendship.”  


MUTUAL DEFENSE TREATY 

Between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America. Signed on August 30, 1951

ARTICLE I. The parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international disputes in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered and to refrain in their international relation from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.

ARTICLE II. In order more effectively to achieve the objective of this Treaty, the Parties separately and jointly by self-help and mutual aid will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.

ARTICLE III. The Parties, through their Foreign Ministers or their deputies, will consult together from time to time regarding the implementation of this Treaty and whenever in the opinion of either of them the territorial integrity, political independence or security of either of the Parties is threatened by external armed attack in the Pacific.

ARTICLE IV. Each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific area on either of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common dangers in accordance with its constitutional processes. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall be immediately reported to the Security Council of the United Nations. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.

ARTICLE V. For the purposes of Article IV, an armed attack on either of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the Island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.

ARTICLE VI. This Treaty does not affect and shall not be interpreted as affecting in any way the rights and obligations of the Parties under the Charter of the United Nations or the responsibility of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security.

ARTICLE VII. This Treaty shall be ratified by the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America in accordance with their respective constitutional processes and will come into force when instruments of ratification thereof have been exchanged by them at Manila.

ARTICLE VIII. This Treaty shall remain in force indefinitely. Either Party may terminate it one year after notice has been given to the other party.

SOURCE: Republic of the Philippines, House of Representatives, Legislative Library

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