PH, US air forces to co-host multilateral military drills starting August 14

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) will lead the biennial exercise dubbed as Pacific Airlift Rally 2023, which is set to run from August 14 to 18.

In a statement, the PAF said participants will come from the Philippines, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Canada, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste.

Different activities will be held at Clark Air Base in Mabalacat, Pampanga, Colonel Jesus Villamor Air Base in Pasay City, and Brigadier General Benito Ebuen Air Base in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

It would cover airborne training exercises, airlift operations, logistical planning table-top exercises, and subject matter expert exchanges that will focus on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) operations.

Participants will exercise mission planning, cargo handling and loading, multinational air-land and airdrop operations, as well as medical transport operations, among others.

The PAF C-130 Hercules will join the exercise with C130s from the USAF, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, Royal Malaysian Air Force, and Indonesian Air Force for the flight training.

They will practice airlift techniques that would help future humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, according to the PAF.

Also covered in the drills are HADR airlift operations and logistical planning for aircraft deployment staging, cargo and movement mission planning, and multinational airlift capability analysis for airlift mission schedule prioritization.

“The Indo-Asia-Pacific region is home to 60 percent of the world’s population in 45 nations spread across 53 percent of the Earth’s surface, and the majority of the world’s natural disasters occur in this area,” the PAF said.

“Experience has demonstrated that to effectively provide support to civilian disaster response agencies, it is extremely important that nations cooperate and improve joint capabilities,” it added. —Joviland Rita/ VAL, GMA Integrated News