MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Friday said next year’s Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) drills could feature expanded activities and broader multinational participation as the Philippines and its allies push to strengthen regional defense cooperation amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.
Teodoro said future iterations of the annual Philippines–United States drills may include operations in areas beyond the West Philippine Sea.
“What we tested now is still limited,” Teodoro told reporters on the sidelines of the Balikatan closing ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo. “We can increase the scope, but not necessarily the scale.”
He said planners are considering introducing “more activities or different activities” in other parts of the country, including the eastern seaboard, depending on proposals from allied countries and the outcome of post-exercise assessments.
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Teodoro said military officials would first conduct a debriefing to identify areas for improvement, lessons learned, and how different branches of the Armed Forces could contribute more effectively to future exercises.
The defense chief also stressed the need to clarify the roles of different military units and improve infrastructure and logistics support as the military modernizes.
The remarks came as senior Philippine and United States military officials highlighted the increasing sophistication of Balikatan exercises, including this year’s first live firing in the Philippines of the United States’ Typhon missile system and Japan’s Type 88 surface-to-ship missile.
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Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the drills reflected the Philippines’ push to acquire and train on advanced weapons systems as part of its modernization program.
“We want to train our personnel in all the modern weapons that we can get our hands on,” Brawner said during a press briefing after the ceremony.
He said the military plans to procure more missile systems similar to those used during Balikatan, citing lessons from modern conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East that demonstrated the growing importance of missile, drone and integrated air defense capabilities.
“We believe that we have to develop our own capabilities so that we can defend the archipelago by ourselves,” Brawner said.
Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command Adm. Samuel Paparo said live-fire exercises were critical in testing the reliability and effectiveness of weapons systems and troop coordination.
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“There’s no substitute for live fire,” Paparo said, adding that the exercises tested targeting, mobility and coordination capabilities needed in actual combat scenarios.
This year also marked the first time that the Japan Self-Defense Forces participated in Balikatan as full participants rather than observers or humanitarian assistance partners.
Brawner said Japan’s expanded participation followed years of planning and legal preparations, including the signing and ratification of the Reciprocal Access Agreement between Manila and Tokyo.
“It’s important that we train with them in terms of military tactics and strategies because we are looking at addressing threats in the region not as individual countries, but as a collective group,” he said.
Paparo said Japan’s participation reflected growing interoperability among allied forces under the Australia-Japan-Philippines-United States defense cooperation framework aimed at strengthening deterrence in the Indo-Pacific.
‘Triple C’
Officials also highlighted the role of the newly established Combined Coordination Center, also referred to as the “Triple C,” inside Camp Aguinaldo.
Paparo described the facility as a secure multinational command-and-control hub designed to coordinate multilateral operations and future Balikatan activities using encrypted communications networks shared among allies.
“We’ve been working on this for five years. It’s a reality,” Paparo said.
Brawner said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. monitored one of the recent live-fire drills in Ilocos through the center, alongside military personnel from the United States, Australia, France, Canada, Japan, and the Philippines.
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Brawner said the goal was to establish communication links with allied command centers outside the country, including those in Japan, Australia, and the US Indo-Pacific Command headquarters, to improve coordination during multinational operations.
“The first thing to do is to establish communications,” Brawner said.
Paparo reiterated that Balikatan’s primary mission remained the mutual defense of the Philippines, adding that allied nations shared an interest in supporting regional security and stability.
During the briefing, Paparo also announced that he would present Brawner with the Legion of Merit, one of the highest military awards of the United States, in recognition of his contributions to the Philippine-US alliance and regional defense cooperation.
Ongoing discussion
Moreover, Brawner said in his remarks that military leaders from the Philippines, the US, Japan, and Australia, collectively known as “Squad”, will meet to discuss plans to expand future Balikatan drills beyond Philippine territory and broaden its area of operations.
“This afternoon, the four of us will be meeting so that we will discuss among ourselves how we will move forward in expanding the Balikatan exercise that will not just be focused or located here in the Philippines, but we are going to expand the area of operations as well,” Brawner said.
He clarified that expanding Balikatan operations outside the Philippines would not involve sending troops abroad, but focused instead on building communications links with allied command centers.
He also acknowledged visiting diplomats and participating military officials during his remarks at the closing ceremony, greeting ambassadors from partner nations, general officers, and other exercise participants. /dl
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