Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the United States Marine Corps conduct a live-fire exercise against an imaginary enemy target facing the West Philippine Sea at the Laoag Sand Dunes on May 6, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/File 

MANILA — The United States’ Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction (NMESIS) has arrived in the Philippines, the Armed Forces of the Philippines confirmed on Tuesday.

The NMESIS is a high mobile coastal anti-ship missile with the ability to strike hostile surface vessels from land-based positions.

Balikatan assistant exercise director and spokesperson B/Gen. Michael Logico said the NMESIS would be used in the annual bilateral exercise of Manila and Washington.

“The NMESIS, I will confirm that it is already in the country,” Logico said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

“I will not say where it is but it is going to participate. It’s going to be part of the exercises,” he added.

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US anti-ship missile system NMESIS. Sgt. Juan Magadan, US Marine Corps via DVIDS/File  

During his visit to Manila in March, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to deploy the NMESIS to the Philippines to counter China’s presence in the region.

Both countries agreed that initiatives to accelerate their longstanding defense partnership would include the deployment of more advanced US military capabilities in the Philippines.

The Balikatan exercise is slated to kick off on April 21 and will run until May 9.

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According to Logico, around 14,000 personnel will participate in the drills, including 5,000 from the AFP and 9,000 from the US Armed Forces.

There will also be 200 active participants from the Australian Defense Force (ADF).

In addition, personnel from Brunei, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam will participate as observers.

'FULL BATTLE TEST'

The 40th iteration of the Balikatan will involve a “full battle test” across different locations in the country.

Logico noted that in the full battle test, all the drills would be integrated together.

“When we talk about the full battle test, we are now treating exercises as rehearsals, so we are implementing a plan that has been planned out in the previous Balikatan, and that is what we are going to execute for this time,” Logico said.

“In the past, we have a separation of what is planning exercise and field training exercise. Now, we’re doing it together,” he added.

Col. Doug Krugman, staff officer of the 1st Marine expeditionary Force and senior exercise planner for Balikatan 2025, said the drills would be “like a war plan being tested.”

“In the past, the field training exercise occurred with tactical units. Great valuable training in the field and the command post exercise occurred with the higher headquarters and they were essentially conducted as two separate events. In the case of the full battle test, we are integrating those events,” Krugman said.

“In the case of the full battle test, we are integrating those events. So, the command post-exercise is actually providing command and control. The field training events you see are actually integrated to a scenario alongside a large number of virtual forces in the simulation. Those two elements merged together provide us that full battle test for both our JTF and headquarters staff,” he added.

After the Balikatan exercise, the NMESIS is expected to stay in the country for future trainings.

“We execute many exercises with the same forces: Salaknib, MAREX, Cope Thunder… If there’s another exercise ongoing in the Philippines after Balikatan and that equipment is appropriate and requested for by the AFP, we would certainly participate in that exercise as well, but it is here for exercise purposes,” Krugman said.

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Aside from the NMESIS, the US Army’s Mid-Range Capability (MRC) Typhon missile system will also be used in the Balikatan exercise.