Philippines, Australia forces hold amphibious assault drill in Zambales

Over a thousand troops from the Philippines and Australia, assisted by United States (US) soldiers, participated in a combined amphibious assault exercise in San Antonio, Zambales on Friday.

In a statement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the activity was part of Philippines-Australia Alon Exercise 2023.

“This exercise marks the second and final phase of amphibious action after the air assault exercise in Palawan earlier this week,” the AFP said.

“This is the first time that the Philippines and Australia have conducted Exercise Alon which forms part of Australia’s Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2023 program,” it added.

The participants were composed of 1,200 personnel from the Australian Defence Force (ADF), 560 from the AFP, and 120 from the US Marine Corps.

"A result of months of planning and preparation by the AFP and the ADF with assistance from the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the training exercise at Naval Station Leovigildo Gantioqui included Pre-Landing Operations where the Philippine Marine Corps and ADF Force Reconnaissance Group were inserted via small boats to observe the beach landing sites, the AFP said.

It added that the Combined Joint Force Entry Operations were carried out by launching a combined amphibious landing to secure the beach landing sites, followed by parachute insertion to seize the objectives and a simultaneous landing via landing craft and USMC MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

According to the AFP, the recovery of forces and equipment will occur on August 26.

Among the assets used in the activity were:

• HMA ships Canberra and Anzac, with the Tarlac-class BRP Davao Del Sur (LD 602);
• close air support from Royal Australian Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft;
• Australian Army M1A1 Abrams tank;
• two Philippine Marine Corps Amphibious Assault Vehicles;
• air lift support by Darwin-based USMC MV-22B

The AFP said the combined amphibious assault exercise aims to enhance the conduct of combined operations and improve tactics, techniques, and procedures to ensure the effective use of all combat arms integrated via force-level command and control.

Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Philippine Defense Chief Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr., and Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles personally witnessed the training.

Exercise Alon enables the AFP and ADF to work closely together to increase interoperability, and deepen people-to-people links to enhance defense cooperation, it added.

On August 14, the Philippines and Australia kicked off their first-ever joint amphibious training in Darwin, Australia. —Joviland Rita/KBK, GMA Integrated News