Phl-U.S. ‘Balikatan’ showcases drone killer

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Sunday wrapped up an integrated air and missile defense exercise with its United States counterpart in San Antonio, Zambales, using a drone-killing weapon as part of this year’s Manila-Washington “Balikatan” war games.

During the drills, the US Marine Corps (USMC) demonstrated its newest counter-drone defense system — Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), which fired several stinger missiles, 30mm chain gun rounds, and 7.62mm machine gun rounds.

MADIS is a short-range, surface-to-air system designed to detect and destroy unmanned aircraft systems.

1Lt. Annie Pontileria, Public Affairs Officer of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, USMC, said the MADIS is one of the US forces’ weapon systems used to enhance coastal defenses.

“The MADIS is a new system that we brought to the Philippines this year with the permission of the AFP. We will be operating it alongside our Philippine Air Force partners.”

“For the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment of the USMC, we are focused on expeditionary, advance-based operations that involve operating in distributed environments, similar to what you have here in the Philippines,” she said.

“So, we can take our forces and spread out across a large landmass or among different islands, and we can help aid the joint force in supporting coastal defense through that method,” Pontileria added.

The integrated air and missile defense exercise aims to enhance interoperability between the AFP and the USAF.

The exercise targets improving the two nations’ ability to detect, track, and neutralize aerial and missile threats as well as strengthening multi-domain defense systems and refining joint response procedures.

The execution of the military drills also ensures seamless US-Philippine coordination in regional security, deterrence operations, and defense collaboration within the Indo-Pacific region.