US leads largest Balikatan drills

The United States and the Philippines used Balikatan 2025 to make a long-running alliance exercise larger, more complex and more multinational. The drills ran from April 21 to May 9, 2025, across the Philippine archipelago and brought in Japan as a full participant for the first time, alongside Australia. More than 14,000 Filipino, U.S., Australian and Japanese service members took part, according to the U.S. Pacific Fleet and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Philippine and U.S. officials said the exercise included a “full battle test” across air, land, sea, cyber and space domains. ### Why did this year’s exercise draw more attention than earlier Balikatan drills? April 21, 2025, marked the start of the 40th iteration of Balikatan, but officials cast it as more than a routine annual event. The U.S. Marine Corps said the exercise would feature a “Full Battle Test” that folded real-world forces and events into a virtual and constructive scenario, while Philippine officials later called it the first iteration to feature a comprehensive full-battle test. (marines.mil) Lt. Gen. Michael S. Cederholm, commanding general of I Marine Expeditionary Force, said the design was meant to validate and improve combined capability “to defend the Philippines.” Philippine Navy Commodore Richard N. Gonzaga, the Balikatan 2025 exercise director, said, “To fight as a team, we have to train as a team.” Those official descriptions tied the exercise directly to alliance readiness rather than ceremonial cooperation. (marines.mil) ### What changed with Japan’s role? Japan took part in Balikatan 2025 as a full-fledged participant for the first time, according to U.S. and Philippine reporting on the exercise. The U.S. Marine Corps said Japanese forces would join alongside the Australian Defence Force, and Japanese embassy officials in Manila later said about 150 Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel participated in the 2025 exercise, the country’s largest Balikatan presence to date. (marines.mil) May 9, 2025, also marked what the Japanese embassy described as the 11th time the Japan Self-Defense Forces had joined Balikatan in some form. The embassy said Japan joined the multilateral maritime exercise with the destroyer JS Yahagi, took part in tabletop and humanitarian activities, and joined other field training and subject-matter exchanges as observers. That participation followed years of closer defense ties between Tokyo and Manila and, later, the entry into force of their Reciprocal Access Agreement on Sept. 11, 2025, according to Philippine state media. (marines.mil) ### What did the forces actually do during the drills? More than 14,000 troops trained across the Philippines in six all-domain field events, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in its closing statement. Those events included air and missile defense, counter-landing operations, maritime security and strike capabilities, as well as humanitarian projects that U.S. officials said delivered nearly $2.5 million in support and supplies to local communities. (ph.emb-japan.go.jp) The Armed Forces of the Philippines said key components included maritime key terrain security operations, live-fire and counter-landing exercises, a multilateral maritime exercise, a cyber defense exercise and integrated air and missile defense. U.S. Pacific Fleet said one of the headline events involved sea-denial activity in the Luzon Strait with the deployment of the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, to Batan Island. (cpf.navy.mil) ### How have Philippine officials described the purpose? Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said at the closing ceremony that Balikatan was “not merely a series of military exercises” but “a demonstration of enduring partnerships and collaborative resolve.” Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. led the May 9 closing ceremony, joined by U.S. Ambassador MaryKay Carlson and senior Philippine and U.S. officers. (afp.mil.ph) March 6, 2026, offered a clearer indication of where Manila wants the exercise to go next. Maj. Gen. Rommel Cordova, the AFP deputy chief of staff for plans, said Japan would send more than 1,000 troops to the next Balikatan and described the presence of partner naval and air units as showing “multilateral cooperation and collective deterrence.” He also said the Philippines had conducted 35 bilateral and multilateral maritime cooperative activities with partner countries since late 2023, most of them in the West Philippine Sea. (afp.mil.ph) ### What comes next after Balikatan 2025? March 2026 planning statements from the Armed Forces of the Philippines pointed to another expansion in the next round of drills. Cordova said the 2026 Balikatan would run from April to May and would be one of the largest in the exercise’s history, with Japan expected to send about 1,000 personnel and additional countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and France involved in some capacity. (pna.gov.ph)