(27 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zambales, Philippines – 27 April 2025
1. U.S. made Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) firing stinger missile
2. Drone inair and stinger missile tracking past
3. Various of MADIS firing
4. Wide of U.S. and Philippine military officers being interviewed
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Sladek, Commander 3rd littoral anti air battalion, United States Marines
"This is the first time that we are using MADIS, my formation was the first one in the Marine Corps to receive MADIS. We just received it in December of last year and we rapidly transitioned it to get it out here to support Balikatan."
6. Various of a U.S. Avenger air defense vehicle being operated
STORYLINE:
U.S. and Philippine forces separately unleashed a barrage of missile and artillery fire that shot down several drones acting as hostile aircraft in live-fire drills on Sunday in Zambales province facing the disputed South China Sea.
The mock battle scenarios over the weekend in the annual Balikatan exercises between the U.S. and its oldest treaty ally in Asia, the Philippines, not only simulated real-life war.
They were also staged near major geopolitical hotspots, which have become delicate frontlines in the regional rivalry between China and the U.S. under former President Joe Biden and now Donald Trump.
About 9,000 American and 5,000 Filipino military personnel took part in the combat maneuvers.
At least 260 Australian personnel also joined, with smaller observer delegations from Japan and other countries.
China has fiercely opposed the combat drills as provocative.
Its aircraft carrier group sailed by a few days earlier near Batanes, where the U.S. military had deployed the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System on Saturday on Batan near the Bashi Channel just south of Taiwan, a critical trade and military route that the U.S. and Chinese militaries have tried to gain strategic control of.
The U.S. and the Philippines have denied the annual combat maneuvers — which both said would focus on a “full-scale battle scenario” this year — were aimed at China or any adversary.
The lines between what’s mock and real, however, have been at times murky.
During the combat exercises from April 21 to May 9, American and Filipino forces will also practice jointly defending Philippine islands by repelling hostile forces attempting to assault from the sea in the western Philippine province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, and in northern Cagayan province near Batanes.
Philippine Brig. Gen. Michael Logico said the combat exercises were crucial to strengthening deterrence against aggression in the Bashi Channel.
Early this month, the Chinese military staged largescale drills in the waters around Taiwan and renewed a warning to the self-ruled democracy not to seek independence. Chinese navy, air, ground and rocket forces staged the drills.
The Philippines used to host two of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland.
The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 agreement.
AP video shot by Joeal Calupitan
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