![]() ![]() Exercises like Balikatan strengthen international partnerships and the participating militaries’ abilities to rapidly respond in unison to crises throughout the Indo-Pacific region. This year’s Balikatan focuses on maritime security and amphibious capabilities, as well as multinational interoperability through military exchanges. The program aims to promote greater defense cooperation with ASEAN and other key allies and partners show multinational coordination where the observers can mutually exchange meaningful ideas and best practices and showcase the joint and combined air, sea and ground operation of the AFP-U.S. Participating in Balikatan demonstrates their ability to quickly forward deploy in support of an ally should a crisis or natural disaster occur.īalikatan 2019 will also bring together ASEAN members for an International Observers Program. Together they represent an increase in military capability committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. This will be the first Exercise Balikatan to incorporate the Wasp with the embarked United States Marines Corps’ F-35B Lightning II aircraft. All events will take place in Luzon and Palawan. and Philippine forces will conduct amphibious operations, live-fire training, urban operations, aviation operations, and counterterrorism response. “Balikatan is a great opportunity for the Navy, Marine Corps team and our allies from the Republic of the Philippines to learn from one another, and further improve our ability operate together.”ĭuring Balikatan 2019, U.S. “We are excited to visit the Philippines for the first time since Wasp was forward deployed to 7th Fleet,” said Capt. ![]() Balikatan is a Tagalog phrase for “shoulder-to-shoulder,” which characterizes the spirit of the exercise and represents the partnership between the U.S. ![]() 30, 2019) – The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1), with embarked Marines from Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force (SPMAGTF) 4, led by 4th Marine Regiment, arrived in Subic Bay on March 30, 2019, in preparation for Exercise Balikatan.īalikatan is an exercise between the Republic of the Philippines and the United States, and also features participation from Australia. ![]()
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