ARMY chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said the command is not planning to redeploy its troops to coastal areas under the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC), the military’s new territorial defense paradigm.
What the Army is developing under the CADC “is the capacity to bring troops from one place to another,” or to areas where emergency situations will arise, Galido said in a press briefing at the Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio on Wednesday.
The Philippine Army, the largest among the military’s major services, has about 120,000 personnel. The Army’s deployment scheme is still geared towards fighting communist rebels and other internal security threats. Five of its 11 infantry divisions are located in Mindanao where members of terrorist, communist and private armed groups continue to operate.
The two other major services of the Armed Forces are the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Air Force. The two are heavily involved in territorial defense operations. Thus, the acquisition of equipment under the military’s modernization program is heavily focused on the Navy and the Air Force.
Tension between Philippines and China remain high over territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea in the South China.
Galido said the Army needs to be able to move forces from one area to another. He said in internal security operations, “you are in the area where the threat is, go after them because they are there.”
In external defense operations, troops need to secure the entire archipelago.
“So we have to be aware. Where is their (foreign aggressors’) probable location. What are they going to do. It’s hard to guard every corner of the country. We have 7,100 islands, plus seven when its low tide,” he said.
“So it’s a matter of being able to sense, thus we need this detection capability and be to anticipate, thus we need to develop intelligence. And then reposition, thus we need to have the capacity to move forces from one area to another,” he said.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr announced the implementation of the CADC last January, seven months after assuming as defense chief.
The CADC, Teodoro initially said, seeks to guarantee Philippine nationals, corporations and those authorized by the Philippine government“ unimpeded and peaceful exploration and exploitation of all natural resources within our exclusive economic zone and other areas where we have jurisdiction.”
In March, Teodoro said under the CADC, they “developing our capability to protect and secure our entire territory and exclusive economic zone in order to ensure that our people and all the generations of Filipinos to come shall freely reap and enjoy the bounties of the natural resources that are rightfully ours within our domain.”
Earlier this month, Teodoro said the defense concept shall “protect our whole territory on a 360 degree basis, not only in the West Philippine Sea but on the eastern seaboard and our southern boundaries.”
TRAINING
Philippine and United States air forces are due to launch next month a second round of training under this year’s Cope Thunder exercise, the Philippine Air Force said.
PAF spokeswoman Col. Maria Consuelo Castillo said the upcoming exercise, which will run from June 17 to June 28, will focus on “large force deployment.”
Castillo said most of the training exercises will be held at Basa Air Base in Pampanga. She said there will also training events at Clark Air Base, also in Pampanga; and at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
She said the exercise will be purely subject matter expert exchanges.
Castillo said these exchanges are “aimed at helping the PAF in meeting our requirements for large force deployment and participation to Exercise Pitch Black.”
She said 900 PAF personnel and 20 to 25 personnel from the US Pacific Air Force will take part in the exercise.
The Cope Thunder exercise, halted in the 1990s, was revived last year. The two sides held two Cope Thunder exercises last year – one in May and the other in July.
Two iterations of Cope Thunder exercises have been scheduled this year. The first was held from April 8 to 19.
The multilateral Pitch Black exercise will be held in Australia from July 12 to August 2.
This will be the first time the PAF will take part in a military exercise outside the country.
The Air Force will be sending its FA-50 fighter jets for the exercise.
“Pitch Black exercise will be the first ever multilateral exercise the PAF will be participating in with our aircraft. The FA-50 aircraft will be sent, the estimate is around five aircraft. FA-50 aircraft will be participating in the multilateral exercise,” said Castillo.
