PH-Australia military exercises begin

Manila, Philippines – Australian forces are in the country for a two-week joint military exercise in what Canberra described as its “largest overseas joint force projection activity” conducted within the region in recent history.

Dubbed as Exercise Alon 25, a reference to wave, the bilateral drill involves over 3,600 personnel – 1,600 are from the Australian Defence Force (ADF), while the rest are from the Philippine side, and also count members of the Royal Canadian Navy and United States Marine Corps’ Marine Rotation Force – Darwin, as well as observers from other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

Australian forces brought with them maritime assets the navy’s Hobart-class guided-missile destroyer HMAS Brisbane with an embarked MH-60R Seahawk helicopter.

Air assets F/A-18F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers and C-130J Hercules will participate. The exercise will be supported by a P-8A Poseidon concurrently deployed to the Philippines. RAAF KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport and C-17A Globemaster III aircraft will facilitate the movement of personnel, aircraft and equipment between Australia and the Philippines.

The land combat drills will involve an Australian army battle group, the Royal Australian Regiment, including an infantry battalion, a cavalry troop with five Australian light armoured vehicles, an artillery battery with 2 M777 155-millimeter howitzers, a combat engineer troop, and medics.

With its scale and scope, Exercise Alon 25 is a “projection” of joint force, or deterrence, and comes within the week when fresh tensions erupted between Manila and Beijing in the contested waters of the West Philippine Sea.

“We’re proud to conduct our largest overseas exercise with the Philippines, and continue to build on our close cooperation,” an ADF press statement quoted Chief of Joint Operations Vice Admiral Justin Jones as saying.

“Exercise Alon 25 is an opportunity for us to practice how we collaborate and respond to shared security challenges, and project force over great distances in the Indo-Pacific,” Jones said.

The exercise, said the Australian official, “reflects Australia’s commitment to working with partners to ensure we maintain a region where state sovereignty is protected, international law is followed, and nations can make decisions free from coercion.”

Live fire

There will be live fire exercises at military training ranges and in maritime areas at locations around Palawan and Luzon, the ADF said.

“These activities will be conducted with due regard to the safety of the participants and wider community, including responsible advance public notification, while ensuring maximum training value,” its statement read.

Exercise Alon’s first iteration was in 2023.

This year’s iteration will see the ADF practice its joint force projection through the mass airlift of an army battle group, comprising armoured, engineering, health and artillery elements.

Participating nations will also conduct amphibious landing operations and maritime maneuvers.