The Armed Forces of the Philippines, on Tuesday, said it is “venturing away to the traditional training areas” for the upcoming 39th reiteration of the Philippines-United States Balikatan Exercise this year. 

Col. Michael Logico, the AFP’s Balikatan executive director, said the Batanes and Western Palawan are among the key locations being considered for the next Balikatan drills. 

“Jumping off from the previous exercise that we held last year, we are venturing away from our traditional training areas, so the traditional training areas used to be in Fort Magsaysay… So now we are actually pushing out into key locations throughout the country—primarily in the north and also in the west,” Logico told reporters in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. 

Logico said the initially identified Balikatan locations were already surveyed. 

“These are locations that we can adequately perform joint operations—that means the involvement of the three major service components, the army, the navy, the air force together with our treaty allies, also the United States,” he added.

“These are also the areas where we deem to be suitable for us to achieve our training objectives,” he continued. 

Logico bared the AFP is considering the conduct of maritime exercises with their US counterparts in the west of Palawan while the integrated air missile defense exercises are likely to be held in Central Luzon. 

Aside from the participation of the United States forces from the US Indo-Pacific Command, Logico said the AFP is also expecting the involvement of the Australian Defence Force and the French Navy in the field training exercises.  

Logico added the AFP has already sent an invitation to Japanese Self-Defense Forces to participate in the exercises.

“Although right now, I have not yet confirmed if they have accepted the invitation to join us in the exercises, and aside from that, we have also invited observers to join us in the international service program,” he said.

The Philippines, he added, has already prepared a list of countries that will be invited to become part of the International Observers Program (IOP) during the Balikatan. 

“[Their] role there is just to observe the exercise,” he noted.

During the exercises, Logico said the AFP will utilize its newly acquired weapon system under the military’s modernization program.

“We are going to test the interoperability between our weapon systems and that of the United States,” he said. 

“It will be both live, virtual, and constructed, so what we're actually be testing here is going to be the command and command, the command and control dimension not only the live fire,” he added. 

Asked if the AFP is bothered by the possible presence of Chinese assets during the Balikatan, Logica said: “Not at all because it’s an expectation that we’ve been going through every single year. That is always our expectation.”

The AFP previously confirmed the presence of an aerial intruder at the main event of the 38th Balikatan Exercises in Zambales last year. 

The aircraft was detected at the Balikatan’s no-fly zone in the middle of the combined littoral live firing and ship sinking drills by the US and the Philippines’ armed forces.