From August 17 to 24, USN and Malaysian Navy held Exercise CARAT in Sandakan, eastern Malaysia, covering scenarios of amphibious landing, surface combat, VBSS, explosive disposal, sea patrol and reconnaissance, and live gun fire.
From August 27 to September 3, US-Thailand Exercise CARAT took place in waters off the Sattahip Naval Base, including on-shore and off-shore parts with more than 1,000 US and Thai military personnel. Exercise scenarios included amphibious landing, surface combat, VBSS, sea patrol and reconnaissance, coastal and river operations, diving and rescue, as well as humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, maritime search and rescue.
From November 2 to 11, US-Brunei Exercise CARAT took place in waters off the Muara Naval Base. The highlights of the exercise were one S-70 Black Hawk from Royal Brunei Armed Forces landing aboard USS Lassen （DDG-82） and one USN MH-60R Seahawk landing aboard the Royal Brunei Navy warship Darulesa. Furthermore, one USN P-8A Poseidon and one Bureneian
patrol plane conducted a maritime reconnaissance operation collaboratively. More than 500 USN and USMC personnel participated in the exercise.
From November 16 to 20, USN and Cambodian Navy held Exercise CARAT in the waters off the Ream Naval Base, covering scenarios of maritime maneuver, Command Control and Communications （C3）, diving, rescue, damage control, vessel pilot, medical care and VBSS.
B. Exercise Cobra Gold
Exercise Cobra Gold was held from February 9 to 20 with around 13,000 military personnel from 6 countries, including the US, Thailand, ROK and so on. Scenarios covered humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and live fire exercise. Exercise Cobra Gold is one of the largest and most influential combined exercises in Asia-Pacific, and is hosted annually by the US and Thailand and participated by other regional countries. In 2015, the US downsized its personnel from 4,300 to 3,600 and canceled live fire amphibious landing exercise, in order to demonstrate its dissatisfaction with the military coup in Thailand. It was the first time that China sent its troops and carried out combined rescue training with soldiers from Thailand and the US.
C. Exercise Shoulder-to-Shoulder
From April 20 to 30, 2015, the 31st annual US-Philippines Exercise Shoulder-to-Shoulder was held in western Palawan Island, Asenan Province and Zambales Province. What is worth of attention is that the Zambales Naval Base is only 220 kilometers off China’s Huangyan Island.
11,740 military personnel from the US, the Philippines and Australia participated in the exercise.
The US personnel increased from 2,500 in 2014 to 6,656 in 2015. And the Philippine personnel increased from 3,000 in 2014 to 5,023 in 2015. The US forces contributed 75 aircraft and 3 warships, and the Philippine forces contributed 15 aircraft and 1 warship. In addition, Australian Defense Forces （ADF） dispatched 61 military personnel and 1 transport aircraft for the first time on the grounds of “strengthening regional security cooperation.”
As an annual combined exercise, Exercise Shoulder-to-Shoulder was started in 1991, suspended in 1995, and resumed in 1999. In 2015, it was held for the 31st time. The scenarios included territorial defense, humanitarian assistance, disaster response, command post exercises （CPXs） and Practice Field Exercise （PFE） for the concern of maritime security. The exercise aimed to enhance the interoperability and test the capabilities of the newly-established Philippine mobile forces.
In 1992, the US closed its last military base in the Philippines. In 1998, the two countries signed Visiting Forces Agreement, enabling a permanent presence of the US forces in the name of visits. In 2014, the two countries signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, permitting the US to build or upgrade military facilities in designated area and predeploy weapons, equipments and supplies. So far, the US military presence in the Philippines has been substantially expanded. Some experts say that the US-Philippines exercise has turned the latter into a force projection platform in the Asia-Pacific region. Some foreign press points out that this combined exercise is designed to counter China’s asserting sovereignty in the South China Sea.
|
