THOUSANDS of Filipino, American, Japanese and South Korean troops are set to hold military exercises meant to promote security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
The drills under the 12-day “Kaagapay ng Mga Mandirigma ng Dagat (Kamandag)” will start tomorrow and will be held in various sites in Luzon, including Metro Manila, and Mindanao.
The seventh iteration of the annual exercise will involve 1,732 Marines from the Philippines, 902 from the US Marine Corps, 57 from the South Korea Marines, and 50 from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, said Brig. Gen. Jimmy Larida, Kamandag the exercise director.
The United Kingdom will join the exercise as observer. It will send eight military personnel to observe, said Larida.
The other venues for the training activities are Palawan, Zambales, Cavite, Batanes, Tawi-Tawi and Zamboanga City.
Larida said the main objective of Kamandag is to “rehearse emerging concepts while also strengthening the relationship and developing interoperability between the Philippine Marine Corps and the United States Marine Corps as well as with our Japanese, Korean, and UK counterparts.”
Larida said Kamandag also seeks to enhance cooperation and interoperability among the participating forces in the conduct of “tactical operations designed to capacitate combined forces in conducting emerging operating concepts.”
He said the other objectives of the exercise are to enhance capabilities in special operations; improve coastal defense capability, improve individual knowledge, skills, and attributes in humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) and in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN); and capacitate public affairs and information operations specialists.
Japan and Korea were merely observers in last year’s Kamandag exercise.
This year, they will be direct participants, Larida said, with Japan taking part in coastal defense training in Palawan, CBRN training in Cavite, as well as HADR and engineering activities and seminar in other areas. Korea will be involved in littoral and land search and land rescue training in Cavite and amphibious assault vehicle subject matter expert exchanges in Zambales and Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City.
A US Marine Corps statement said Kamandag is one of the many exercises between the US and the Philippines that demonstrates the two countries’ “long-standing commitment to defense cooperation and regional security.”