AFP eyes cyber military defense

The Armed Forces of the Philippines stressed on Friday the need to boost the country's cyber military defense as it formally concluded the multi-service military exercises at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Some 1,500 personnel from the Philippine Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps along with Philippine Coast Guard personnel have participated in the 12-day AFP Joint Exercise Dagat-Langit-Lupa or AJEX DAGIT-PA from 6 to 17 November.

Participants were able to jointly train in air detection and interception, maritime security operations, amphibious operations, combined arms and littoral live, unconventional warfare encounters and terrorism and cyber defense drills.

AJEX DAGIT-PA spokesperson Col. Michael Logico said that the AFP is now working on building its own cyber defense capabilities.

He added that cyber defense exercises are going to be a common fixture in joint exercises like on this scale.

"We recognize that the cyber domain is a crucial area where the AFP has to pay attention to because all of the other kinetic capabilities are also hinged on the cyber domain," said Logico, adding that the AFP also wants to pay attention to the non-physical domains.