US, Philippine troops hold joint drills

From ABS-CBN (Oct 16): US, Philippine troops hold joint drills

Around 600 Philippine and US troops held mock firing attacks on Tuesday (October 16) in the final exercise of their two-week joint drills. The bilateral training between the US and Philippine marines takes place annually under a mutual defence agreement. The troops fired mortars and practiced flying Sea Knight helicopters, which are normally deployed for combat support, transport of troops, and search-and-rescue operations. "What you saw was basically three combined arms live fire attacks. So you saw three different objectives being taken. And you saw a combined effort between the Philippine Marines, United States Marines, our air power, their air power in demonstration here today," said US Marine Corps Brigadier General Craig Timberlake. The 29th Philippines-US Amphibious Landing Exercise is aimed at strengthening regional security and improving the two countries' humanitarian assistance and disaster response and relief operations....

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/10/16/12/us-philippine-troops-hold-joint-drills