Military to conduct naval drill off waters fronting West Philippine Sea

November 23, 2020

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will conduct a naval drill off the waters fronting the West Philippine Sea as part of a AFP Joint Exercise (AJEX) that opened Monday.

Major Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman and exercise director, said the naval drill will be held in San Antonio, Zambales.

"Major exercises to be held are Amphibious Operations and Island Defense  in San Antonio, Zambales; Combined Arms Live Fire Exercises in Capas, Tarlac; Cyber Defense Exercises in Camp Aguinaldo; and Staff Exercises in Nolcom headquarters," he said.

Amid the territorial dispute in West Philippine Sea, Arevalo said the drill is not intended to target any country.

"This is an activity that we yearly do. As I said this is our fourth iteration and we need this for us to specifically determine our joint interoeprability and to enhance the capability of the armed forces. particularly its branches of service will be readily deployable to security challenges that we are facing," he said.

"Definitely this is not intended for any country or nation, this is a capability exercise that we need to support our intent for us to be interoperable and readily deployable," he added.

Arevalo said the drill which runs from Nov. 23 to Dec. 4 will be participated by more than 1,100 active and reserve Army, Navy , Marines and Air Force personnel.

He said the drill will "focus on Territorial Defense, Internal Security Operations, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives (CBRNE), and Cyber Defense operations".

The Philippine Army will be utilizing its armored vehicles and combat engineering equipment while the Philippine Navy will deploy BRP Jose Rizal, other patrol ships, landing dock, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, said Arevalo

The Philippine Air Force’ FA-50 aircraft and the Philippine Marines’ Amphibious Assault Vehicles" will also be used, said Arevalo.

The opening ceremony of the  AJEX DAGIT-PA exercise, which stands for “Dagat-Langit-Lupa”, was virtually with AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Rear Admiral Erick Kagaoan as keynote speaker. Robina Asido/ DMS