Latest news with #Navy-MarineExpeditionaryShipInterdictionSystem
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
U.S. and Philippines Boost Military Ties To Counter China Threats
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on May 30 to discuss joint efforts to counter China's growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region. The high-level talks underscore America's deepening military cooperation with Manila as tensions escalate in contested South China Sea waters. The meeting built upon prior discussions held in Manila on March 28, when Hegseth reaffirmed America's commitment to the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty — the cornerstone of what officials describe as the 'ironclad' U.S.-Philippines alliance. Hegseth praised the Philippines for standing firm against China's aggressive tactics targeting lawful Philippine maritime activities. The Defense Department noted that the two leaders celebrated the recent conclusion of Exercise BALIKATAN. This year's iteration marked the largest and most complex joint training exercise in the alliance's history. The massive war games showcased America's deployment of increasingly sophisticated military hardware to the region. Advanced systems included the Typhon missile system and the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System. The exercises also featured highly capable unmanned surface vessels, signaling a new era of autonomous warfare. Both secretaries emphasized how such joint training enhances deterrence against potential Chinese aggression and committed to continued progress in strengthening defense cooperation between their nations. The leaders stressed the importance of partnership and transparency in their approach to deterring China. Their discussions focused on practical steps to further enhance alliance readiness across the Pacific theater.
GMA Network
2 days ago
- General
- GMA Network
PH, US marines hold live-fire drill in Tarlac
Filipino personnel who are skilled in mortar operations exchanged knowledge and ideas with their US counterparts, according to the PMC. (Courtesy if the Philippine Marines) The Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) and the United States Marine Corps (USMC) conducted a joint live-fire exercise at Colonel Ernesto Rabina Air Base in Tarlac on Thursday as part of the Kamandag Exercise. In a statement, the PMC said the 81mm mortar was used in the activity. 'PMC fired mortar rounds at designated targets, demonstrating accuracy. The USMC likewise showcased their own mortar operations, performing their methods for target acquisition and fire correction before successfully engaging their assigned targets,' the PMC said. Filipino personnel who are skilled in mortar operations exchanged knowledge and ideas with their US counterparts, according to the PMC. The exercise also exhibited coordinated fire adjustments facilitated by forward observers to enhance accuracy on the battlefield, the PMC added. An observer from Thailand witnessed the live-fire exercise. 'The live-fire exercise highlights the enduring partnership between the PMC and USMC in their mutual commitment to enhancing and readiness through continued cooperation and joint training,' the PMC said. This year's Kamandag Exercise officially commenced on May 26 and is scheduled to conclude on June 6. PMC commandant Major General Arturo Rojas said a total of around 4,000 participants are expected to join the training. The US missile system Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) will be used in the training. Among the exercises that will be featured in this year's Kamandag are the following: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRN) Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) Senior Enlisted Leaders Symposium (SELS) Maritime & Special Operation Forces events Live Fire Integration Maritime Strike Counter-Landing/Defensive Retrograde Operation Special Operating Forces Strike Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. –NB, GMA Integrated News
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Marines, Army deploying missile systems to Luzon Strait
Marine Corps and Army missile systems are set to deploy to a key chokepoint in the Philippine Island chains for anti-ship drills during the military exercise known as KAMANDAG. The unmanned, anti-ship Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, and the Army's High Mobility Rocket Artillery System will feature prominently in the exercise with their emplacement between Luzon and Taiwan, U.S. Naval Institute reported. The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment's NMESIS is heading to Batanes, the northernmost portion of Philippine territory. The platform first reached the island of Basco and Batan for Balikatan 2025, a maritime security exercise. This unit will be the next to field the ship-killing missile system That was the first time the Marines deployed the anti-ship missile to the Luzon Strait. 'The insertion of the NMESIS on Batan during Exercise Balikatan 25's MKTSO was an achievement of a major milestone not just for 3rd MLR, but for the entire U.S. Marine Corps enterprise, signifying advancements in the service's equipment fielding to employment timelines,' said Col. John G. Lehane, commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment. 'In a matter of months, the NMESIS went from an experimental asset undergoing the rigorous initial operational testing and evaluation spearheaded by Marine Corps Systems Command and the program office, to a fully fielded weapon system capable of neutralizing the threat of adversarial vessels in contested littoral zones.' Marine Rotational Force-Darwin will conduct corps-level command and control. The 3rd MLR will deploy their missile battery to Batanes using KC-130J transport aircraft, USNI reported. 'KAMANDAG 9 is a clear demonstration of the strength of the U.S.-Philippine alliance and our ironclad commitment to regional security and combined readiness,' said Col. Jason C. Armas, commanding officer of the MRF-D 25.3 MAGTF. 'Training shoulder to shoulder with our Philippine Marine Corps partners isn't just about building interoperability — it's about forging trust in the crucible of shared hardship and preparing together to respond with speed and precision to any crisis, anywhere, anytime.' The exercise is scheduled to run from May 26 to June 6 and will take place across the Philippine archipelago, including Luzon, Batanes, Tawi-Tawi and Palawan, according to a release. Training events include maritime key terrain security operations, defensive counter-landing live-fire drills, littoral maneuver, amphibious operations and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, according to the release. Japanese and Korean forces are scheduled to conduct amphibious drills in the province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, a key area of control for any potential conflict with Beijing. The Army HIMARs will be transported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines alongside the Marine anti-ship systems. The service deployed the launchers during Balikatan 2024. The missile units will rehearse maritime strikes in the Luzon Strait. Those systems can cover the 250-kilometer-wide strait through fires and sensors, USNI reported. The 3rd MLR used a network of ground-based sensors and drones across Batanes and the Babuyan Islands during previous exercises. Those operations included the Philippine territory of Mavulis, less than 90 miles from Taiwan.
GMA Network
5 days ago
- Politics
- GMA Network
PH, US marines open Kamandag exercise; NMESIS to be used in training
The Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) and the United States Marine Corps (USMC) officially opened Monday their Kamandag Exercise for this year with the participation of other countries. At a press conference, PMC commandant Major General Arturo Rojas said a total of around 4,000 participants are expected to join the training, which is set to be completed on June 6. 'We have around 2,000 for the PMC side and around the same number with our USMC counterparts,' Rojas said. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Republic of Korea Marine Corps, and United Kingdom Armed Forces will also participate in Kamandag. Meanwhile, the Netherlands, Bahrain, Canada, New Zealand, among others, will serve as observers. The US' missile system Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) will be used in training, according to Rojas. 'We'll be using the NMESIS also. Again, be able to learn and sustain what we have, what we did in the past Balikatan,' he said. The NMESIS will be deployed to the northern Luzon area, according to USMC's Marine Rotational Force - Darwin 25.3 commanding officer Colonel Jason Armas. 'These are scenario-driven exercises where we will conduct operations with the NMESIS, which is a great capability. It extends the commander's operational reach. And what it really does is it continues to validate Force Design 2030 for the USMC,' Armas said. 'And I would argue that it truly enhances the archipelagic coastal defense concept for the Philippine Armed Forces and really moving forward in modernization,' he added. Among the exercises that will be featured in this year's Kamandag are the following: Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive (CBRN) Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) Senior Enlisted Leaders Symposium (SELS) Maritime & Special Operation Forces events Live Fire Integration Maritime Strike Counter-Landing/Defensive Retrograde Operation Special Operating Forces Strike Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News
Mint
6 days ago
- Politics
- Mint
US aims to keep Chinese navy guessing with new missile system
The Air Force C-130 transport plane dipped down on the sun-baked airfield of this remote island in the northern Philippines, delivering a weapon system designed to give the U.S. an edge in the intensifying superpower standoff in the Pacific. The Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or Nmesis, is an antiship missile launcher mounted on a remote-controlled truck. The dumbbell-shaped islet where it landed lies just 120 miles south of Taiwan. For the Marines, the Nmesis's flight to Batan was a key test in a high-stakes retooling aimed at readying the military's rapid-response force for a war with China in some of the world's most strategic, but increasingly tense, waterways. The prospect of an armed conflict with China—whether over Taiwan, the self-governed democracy Beijing claims as its own, or the contested shipping lanes of the South China Sea—has the U.S. playing catch-up. While American forces were bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, China built up the world's biggest navy and a formidable arsenal of missiles aimed at making swaths of the Pacific off-limits to its adversaries. The Nmesis—pronounced 'nemesis"—was designed to erode that lead. It takes advantage of natural chokepoints like Batan to raise the cost of access for Chinese warships. Initially built to be launched from ships, the Norway-made Naval Strike Missiles the Nmesis fires can sink vessels some 115 miles away, skimming the water and adjusting their trajectory to follow and hit a moving target. With the Nmesis, Marines can now shoot these high-precision missiles from land, including from remote, mountainous islands like Batan, where launchers are far easier to conceal than on the open water. The main vehicle carrying the missiles is unmanned. Its operators work from a distance, based in two support vehicles that place them outside the line of fire of anyone trying to take out the launchers. The Nmesis' mere presence on strategic islands in the Pacific complicates decision-making for adversaries, who have to weigh the threat it poses for any vessel that may find itself within striking distance, said Col. John Lehane, the commander of the Hawaii-based Marine regiment that deployed the system to Batan late last month as part of an annual exercise. 'Once you put it on the ground, it is there. It can move around. It is hard to find," Lehane said. The Nmesis's antiship capabilities give it an edge over other land-based missile systems, such as the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, which helped transform the battlefield in Ukraine but has struggled to hit moving targets at sea, Lehane said. Rommel Ong, a former vice commander of the Philippine navy and now a senior research fellow at the Ateneo School of Government in Manila, likened the Nmesis' presence on islands in the Western Pacific islands to a 'shell game." 'You keep the other side guessing and that creates the uncertainty and in a way that creates the deterrent effect," he said. Lehane's 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment was the first Marine unit to take delivery of the new system late last year. The Nmesis is a centerpiece of a broader overhaul of the Marines aimed at making the force more agile, able to swoop into action even after a conflict has already erupted. The Philippines, America's oldest treaty ally in Asia, is a key part of that new push. The government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has given the U.S. military access to more bases, on which it can build facilities, pre-position equipment and refuel and maintain aircraft and vessels. Since the U.S. has no permanent troops based in the Philippines, Washington would have to airlift fighters and weapons to small, hard-to-access islands, under the threat of enemy fire. Extensive drills mean some U.S. troops now rotate through Philippine bases for much of the year. That not only improves coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but also allows Marines and Air Force pilots to get more familiar with the topography of the Pacific theater. On practice flights and reconnaissance missions, they scope out mountains and other features that could serve as cover. 'We get really low and hide," said Capt. Benjamin Dorsey of the 39th Airlift Squadron, which moved the Nmesis to Batan. Lehane said the successful deployment of the Nmesis should signal to potential adversaries that the Marines' island fighters are ready for combat. 'A lot of folks are still perceiving our unit as experimental and it's absolutely not experimental," he said. 'The most important thing is to get folks accustomed to the fact that where you see 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, you should expect that there are Nmesis with us." Write to Gabriele Steinhauser at
