PH, 2 allies hold maritime exercise
The Philippines held maritime drills with the United States and Japan inside its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, its military said on Friday, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing around a disputed shoal.
The drills, which brought together a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Philippine Navy ship BRP Andres Bonifacio and a C-90 small plane, and Japan’s Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare, are the Philippines’ latest round of exercises with allies this year in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The exercises were conducted “in a manner that is consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation, and the rights and interests of other states,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US Indo-Pacific Command said in separate statements.
On Wednesday, the Philippines accused China Coast Guard vessels of firing water cannons and side-swiping one of its boats on a resupply mission to fishermen at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the contested South China Sea.
Manila also expressed alarm over the presence at the shoal of a Chinese navy vessel, which it said blocked and shadowed its coast guard ships, in what it described as a “steep escalation and provocation.”
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines and Vietnam, which all claim parts of the sea, have expressed concerns at China’s claims that encroach on their EEZs.
EEZs extend 370 kilometers from a country’s coast and allow it sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources in the water and on the ocean floor.
Laser-equipped warship
Also on Friday, the US Navy said the American destroyer USS Preble (DDG 88) exercised navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the disputed Spratly Islands.
The passage taken by the USS Preble, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, challenges restrictions on “innocent passage” imposed by the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan and Vietnam with claims to the Spratly Islands, Reuters news service quoted the US Navy as saying in a statement.
The American navy called unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance notification requirement for such passage “unlawful.”
The Preble is the only US warship equipped with a laser system, called Helios, designed to counter small vessels and collect long-range intelligence, according to its manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
The vessel arrived at the US facility in Yokosuka, Japan, from US Naval Base San Diego only in October to become part of the US Seventh Fleet.
The Preble was equipped with the laser system in 2022, after undergoing land-based tests in 2021. The laser system is now undergoing trials at sea.
According to the US military newspaper Stars and Stripes, laser weapons systems run on a vessels power supply and are theoretically inexhaustible, unlike other weapons systems whose munitions have to be replenished. —REPORTS FROM REUTERS AND STARS AND STRIPES
