‘Balikatan’ 2026 to include ship-sinking drill
Filipino, American and Japanese troops will stage a high-profile ship-sinking drill off Ilocos Norte during this year’s “Balikatan” (shoulder-to-shoulder) war games from April 20 to May 8 as the exercises expand into a broader multidomain operation combining live-fire combat drills with cyber and other nonkinetic activities.
The “sinking exercise” (Sinkex), one of the centerpiece live-fire events of the annual drills, will see allied forces carry out coordinated strikes from air, land and sea to sink the decommissioned BRP Lake Caliraya (PS-70), according to Balikatan spokesperson Col. Dennis Hernandez.
“This is a joint maritime strike,” Hernandez told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.
“It is a combination of air, land and maritime assets sinking the target vessel.”
The exercise underscores the Philippines’ push to strengthen interoperability with allies as Balikatan 2026 develops into what military officials described as an “expanded multilateral engagement” involving around 17,000 troops.
Beyond the live-fire component, officials said this year’s Balikatan reflects a shift toward integrating both kinetic and nonkinetic operations across multiple domains.
AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said in a briefing on “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” that the exercises now cover cyber, air, land and maritime components, combining combat drills with command-and-control, cyber operations and other coordination activities.
“This year, it expands from kinetic to nonkinetic,” Padilla said, describing Balikatan as “very dynamic and ever evolving.”
