Page 13 - Jay Bargeron News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The annual exercises, called Balikatan — Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder — will run up to April 8.

Thousands of US and Philippine troops yesterday began one of their largest combat exercises in years that was to include live-fire maneuvers, aircraft assaults, urban warfare and beach landings, in a showcase of US firepower in the northern Philippines near its sea border with Taiwan. The annual exercises, called Balikatan — Filipino for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — are to run until Friday next week with nearly 9,000 navy, marines, air force and army troops, including 5,100 US military personnel, to strengthen the allies’ “capabilities and readiness for real-world challenges,” US and...

Nearly 9,000 American and Filipino soldiers will take part in military training exercises in the Philippines from Monday (March 28), the largest to be conducted under President Rodrigo Duterte, the armed forces had announced this week.

The Philippines and the US will kick off the largest-ever joint military drills in the archipelago nation next week, US officials said on March 22, showing off their strong defence ties in the face of growing Chinese assertiveness.

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. and Philippines will hold their biggest military drills in three decades as tensions grow with China, injecting new life into a defense alliance that had languished in recent years.