Hawaii-based U.S. Army troops to go on military exercises again in PH

Soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, conduct team live-fire training during the Salaknib exercise at Colonel Ernesto Rabina Air Base, Philippines, March 8, 2022. (Matthew Mackintosh/U.S. Army)

With the Philippines and U.S. ramping up defense cooperation, soldiers from the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division will again spend March and April this year in the Philippines on expeditionary-style training exercises.

“It looks like we’re going to be able to open up the aperture, not only on this year in Salaknib and Balikatan, but perhaps in years to come as well,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Ryan, the division’s commander, told Stars & Stripes.

Salaknib is an U.S. Army-to-Philippine Army exercise in March while the much larger Balikatan in April will include U.S. Marines, sailors and airmen.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration recently renewed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, giving more U.S. troops access to Philippine military bases. The previous Rodrigo Duterte administration had suspended joint exercises and leaned towards China. Marcos welcomed more U.S. backing amid Manila’s maritime tensions with Beijing.

Operation Pathways began in 2014 as Pacific Pathways, after then-President Benigno Aquino Jr. signed the original EDCA pact.