Balikatan joint exercise returns to PHL

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 28): Balikatan joint exercise returns to PHL

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) began the first phase of Exercise Balikatan 2016 on Monday, conducting preliminary work on five different school buildings and community medical engagements in Panay and Palawan leading up to information exchanges and live training events over a 12-day period.

In the following weeks U.S. forces will join in the AFP as they work shoulder-to-shoulder during these engagements and throughout the exercise.

Balikatan is an annual Philippine-U.S. military bilateral training exercise that is a signature element of the Philippine-U.S. alliance focused on a variety of missions to include humanitarian assistance, maritime lawenforcement, and environmental protection.

BK 16 will take place in the Philippines on April 4 to 15. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place April 4, followed by several training events throughout the12-day exercise, and the closing ceremony is scheduled to be held April 15.

During BK 16 Philippine and U.S. service members will conduct humanitarian civil assistance (HCA) projects throughout Panay. Preliminary work on community infrastructure projects begins at the end of March.

It will demonstrate cooperation and interoperability between the Philippines andthe U.S., consistent with the Mutual Defense Treaty and Visiting Forces Agreement, as we continue our commitment to train, share information and provide support to each other through a range of military operations.

Throughout BK 16 AFP and U.S. forces will work together to enhance maritime law enforcement throughout the Philippines in order to meet annual training requirements, and enhance techniques, tactics, and procedures as a critical part of interoperability of our forces.

Military service members from both countries will also conduct combined simulation supported events and operational events in three main commands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Western Command, Northern LuzonCommand, and Sothern Luzon Command), and other major Philippine military camps such as Crow Valley, Fort Magsaysay, Clark Air Field, Subic Bay, Palawan and Panay to improve their ability to work together, partnering incapabilities and plan follow-on operations.

One of the main operations for this year’s exercise will be the implementation of a joint rapid reactionforce as part of the distributed operations in the vicinity of Panay, demonstrating the partnered capability in rapid response.

BK16 is the 32nd iteration of the annual exercise. This year, the Philippines and the United States have invited a number of personnel from other regional partner nations to attend a portion of the exercise. Mutual forces from the Philippines, United States and Australia will participatein all major exercise events including the simulation supported event (SSE), operational event (OE) and humanitarian civic assistance (HCA). The AFP has invited the following nations to observe BK 16 activities: Brunei,Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Japan, South Korea, and Timor-Leste.

“Balikatan” in Filipino means "shoulder-to-shoulder" and characterizes the spirit of the exercise and the Philippines-U.S. alliance.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=870790