U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion, roleplaying as opposing forces (OPFOR), reacts to an engagement during a simulated firefight as part of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X) exercise at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, June 7, 2024. This iteration of JPMRC-X marks the first deployment to the Philippines, which will enable and assist the Philippine Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in building combat training center locations within the Philippines. The JPMRC-X is a Department of the Army initiative consisting of a deployable package of personnel and equipment designed to support training exercises across the Pacific. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Thomas Moeger)
U.S. Army Sgt. Ratu Komaisavai, a sniper assigned to the 100th Infantry Battalion, roleplaying as opposing forces (OPFOR), fires blank rounds during a simulated n engagement as part of the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X) exercise at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, June 7, 2024. This iteration of JPMRC-X marks the first deployment to the Philippines, which will enable and assist the Philippine Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in building combat training center locations within the Philippines. The JPMRC-X is a Department of the Army initiative consisting of a deployable package of personnel and equipment designed to support training exercises across the Pacific. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Thomas Moeger)
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. James Jerrard, Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific, and Philippine Army Vice Commander, Maj. Gen Leodevic Guinid meet with U.S. and Philippine Soldiers during a leadership visit during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Exportable (JPMRC-X) exercise on Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, June 6, 2024. This iteration of JPMRC-X marks the first deployment to the Philippines, which will enable and assist the Philippine Army and the Armed Forces of the Philippines in building combat training center locations within the Philippines. The JPMRC-X is a Department of the Army initiative consisting of a deployable package of personnel and equipment designed to support training exercises across the Pacific. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Spc. Carleeann Smiddy)
Hawaii-based Army units are continuing to play a central role in U.S.- Philippine relations as tensions mount between China and the Philippines.
On June 10, soldiers from the Schofield Barracks-based 25th Infantry Division, the Fort Shafter-based 196th Infantry Brigade and the Army Reserve’s 100th Infantry Battalion wrapped up Exercise Salaknib. The Army exercise was held in two parts, one that began in April and one in June — it was put on pause for the larger multinational Exercise Balikatan in May, in which the Hawaii troops also participated.
The latter half was run by soldiers from the 196th as part of the Army’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, a series of training ranges in Hawaii and Alaska to prepare soldiers for Pacific deployments. The training in the Philippines was part of the 196th Infantry’s “exportable” version called JPRMC-X, which does training annually in a different Pacific country each year.
Philippine troops have trained in the Hawaii JPMRC exercises in recent years and want to develop their own version. 196th brigade commander Col. Bryan Martin said, “They call it a ‘combat training readiness area,’ and they’re trying to set one up … at Fort Magsaysay in Luzon, and it’s very much a model of JPMRC.”
On June 17, members of the Chinese coast guard brandishing axes, machetes, knives and clubs boarded Philippine navy boats and confiscated equipment in a scuffle that left a Philippine navy sailor severely injured and minus one finger. According to Philippine officials, Chinese vessels rammed Philippine military boats to stop them from resupplying troops on the the BRP Sierra Madre, a beached vessel the Philippines has used as an outpost on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal.
Filipino soldiers are training to fight a force potentially far more powerful than they have ever faced. Martin said that with JPMRC-X the goal is to “create an immersive environment that brings in all the pressures that combat against a peer adversary might bring. Or in their case, an adversary that’s infringed on their territorial sovereignty, and how do they hold them off until allies and partners can arrive to help reestablish sovereignty?”
Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific, has been promoting the concept of a Pacific “landpower network” and has sometimes frustrated his critics with his refrain, “People live on the land.”
Not everyone in the Philippines has welcomed these closer ties. On May 9, as Exercise Balikatan came to a close, a group of activists outside of the Philippine military’s general headquarters.
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2024/06/25/hawaii-news/hawaii-army-units-help-prepare-philippines-in-ongoing-dispute/
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