Philippine and United States troops conducted Civilian Military Activities from the Sea (CMA-S) and simulated precise responses to a powerful typhoon, similar to Yolanda, that could hit the province and other areas in Luzon.
United States Military Troops with combined forces from the Armed Forces of the Philippines help each other on building classrooms and a grandstand in Surok Elementary School in Guiuan, Samar as part of the combined joint civil military operation task force activities of the Balikatan 2017. (Photo by: Juan Carlo de Vela) Manila Bulletin File Photo
Major Celeste Frank Sayson, Balikatan 2017 spokesman for the Philippines, said the CMA-S, part of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations for this year’s Balikatan exercises, utilized air and sea assets coming from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)and from the U.S.
On the Philippine side, assets used included the Philippine Navy’s strategic sea lift vessel (LD-601) BRP Tarlac, two UH-ID Huey transport helicopter, a Landing Craft Utility (LCU), a type of boat used by amphibious forces to transport equipment and troops to the shore, and also capable of transporting vehicles and troops from amphibious assault ships to beachheads or piers and a rigid-hulled inflatable boat (HRB) or rigid inflatable boat (RIB), a lightweight but high-performance and high-capacity boat constructed with a solid, shaped hull and flexible tubes at the gunwale.
The US air and naval assets used in the exercise included a Sacagawee (T-AKE-2), a Lewis and Clark-class type dry cargo ship; a Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, an American multi-mission, military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities; a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, a four-bladed, twin-engine medium- utility helicopter and a Boeing CH-47 Chinook is an American twin-engine tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter.
Sayson said Balikatan aimed to provide support to the communities devastated by typhoons through the conduct of health education and first responder Bilateral Subject Matter Exchange Events (SMEE) in order to increase readiness of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Local Government Units (LGU), local populace, and other participating government agencies and civil society volunteers.
“Balikatan 33-17 providd high-impact training to synchronize government actions during natural calamities,” he said.
More than 500 Filipinos and US troops participated in the HADR activities.
http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/05/15/balikatan-forces-simulate-responses-to-disasters/
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