The meteoric rise of the service’s autonomous weapons stockpile was a result of a clear edict from the top down and service member adaptability, according to Commanding Officer of the Weapons Training Battalion Col. Scott Cuomo, who spoke at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington.

“Rewind your brain to October,” Cuomo said. “We had zero FPV attack drones in the United States. We have over 3,500 right now.”

First-person view drones allow operators to watch a live feed through either goggles or a screen that provide visuals from the drone’s vantage point. Many weigh several pounds, can carry explosives and travel close to 100 mph.

Once the top brass signaled the service’s shift toward modernizing its unmanned strike capabilities, the Marine Corps responded swiftly, ramping up the service’s development and utilization of FPVs.

In January 2025, Commanding Generals of Training Command Maj. Gen. Anthony M. Henderson and Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory Brig. Gen. Simon M. Doran launched the Marine Corps Attack Drone Team, recognizing the necessity of first-person view drones after the proliferation of the technology during the war in Ukraine.

The strides came with the blessing of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith, a vocal proponent of getting FPV drones into the hands of Marines quickly.

The team, based out of Marine Corps Base Quantico, works in lockstep with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory to integrate the drones into the Fleet Marine Force.

Part of the integration includes increasing troops’ proficiency with the technologies through Marine Corps attack drone competitions.

Marines from 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, participated in the first attack drone competition in Okinawa, Japan, from Dec. 3 to 12, 2025.

By August 2025, the service issued an official 90-page handbook providing instructions on how to properly employ drones against adversaries.

Most recently, Marines with the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment operated drones as part of the Marine Corps Attack Drone Competition at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, in March 2026.

Over a two-week period, the team trained and certified U.S. Marines as drone operators, attack drone instructors and payload specialist instructors, according to a Marine Corps X post.

And during a live-fire event on April 27 at Exercise Balikatan in the Philippines, the Marine Corps conducted the first FPV attack drone strike that joint forces have executed in that part of the world, Cuomo said.

The Pentagon issued a call to defense industry executives in December 2025 to help it acquire and deploy over 300,000 small one-way attack drones by 2028 as part of a $1 billion initiative. The Marine Corps announced shortly after that it was launching six drone training programs open to any MOS.

Cuomo likened the service’s quick adoption and mastery of drone technology to a previous skill challenge it faced.

“The Marine Corps was not very good at marksmanship at the turn of the 20th century,” Cuomo said. “So what did our ninth commandant do? He created the Marine Corps Shooting Team. And now we all know the Marine Corps is … really good at shooting.”

As the new initial course in the recon training pipeline, GRC is one of two programs, alongside the Amphibious Reconnaissance Course, replacing the service’s Basic Reconnaissance Course.

The new curriculum, which was launched April 27 at the Camp Pendleton-based Reconnaissance Training Company, was developed following analysis of how recon training can best support the service’s Force Design initiatives.

The Reconnaissance Training Company, or RTC, trains Marines who will fight as part of scout or reconnaissance teams within the Corps’ Ground Combat Element of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force.

“Marine Reconnaissance training will have the same rigor it’s long been famous for,” Maj. Gen. Michael A. Brooks, commanding general of Training Command, said in a May 1 release. “These changes are incredibly valuable, shaping a force capable of providing critical intelligence in dynamic and complex environments and ensuring our Marines remain the most effective on the battlefield.”

The curriculum updates, meanwhile, are also designed to enhance students’ infantry skills by way of replacing Marine Combat Training for non-infantry Marines with the Infantry Rifleman Course.

“This change reduces wait times and offers early exposure to human performance support, ensuring a smoother progression through infantry, aquatic and physical training to better prepare Marines for the demands of reconnaissance training,” the release stated.

Students attending the Ground Reconnaissance Course will undertake a combination of lecture and practical application training in land navigation, water survival, communications, surveillance, patrolling and supporting arms.

The Amphibious Reconnaissance Course, meanwhile, is designed to supplement the foundational training provided during the Infantry Rifleman Course and GRC.

The ARC focuses on aquatic operations, amphibious mission planning and use of unique communications and sensor equipment, among other areas.

Marines who finish the ARC will be given the military occupational specialty of Reconnaissance Marine, or 0321.

The replacement of the Basic Reconnaissance Course was hinted at in early April by Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos A. Ruiz, who noted in a Facebook post that the April 3 graduating class would be one of the last before the service transitioned to courses more aligned with the 2030 Force Design objectives.

That particular graduating class included Sgt. Dakota Meyer, who was presented the Medal of Honor in 2011 by President Barack Obama for actions in Afghanistan.

Meyer, 37, reenlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in April 2025 because he believed he “had more to give,” he stated previously.

Military Times editor Cristina Stassis contributed to this report.

Finishing off the foe’s stubborn resistance, a Kestrel first-person-view (FPV) drone carrying an explosive payload slammed into the enemy bunker. Afterwards, sweating profusely in the 97ºF heat, the Americans and Filipinos secured the area.

This jungle patrol in the thickly vegetated training area of Fort Magsaysay, located 75 miles north of Manila, was just one of many events taking place across the Philippines in Exercise Balikatan 2026.

More than 17,000 troops from seven countries are participating in this multilateral exercise being held from Apr. 20 to May 8.

The major U.S. Army contingent in Balikatan is the 3rd Mobile Brigade of the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division. The soldiers conducting this realistic drill were from Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, alongside troops from the Philippine Army’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.

This engagement integrating new tech underscored how the “Tropic Lightning” division is transforming and adopting new technologies as one of the Army’s two original Transformation in Contact divisions. It is required to do so by the changing nature of modern warfare.

Col. Adisa King, the 3rd Mobile Brigade commander, told Defense News that technology does help: “It reduces risk a little bit, but it allows you to see farther.”

“The challenge is how do you mass that? What if I had ten of those [drones]?” King asked. “They go up to disrupt or they go up to help me see, and we push them all the way down to lower levels. But sustainment is the issue.”

Indeed, the technology can be fickle, King pointed out: Drones can overheat in the tropical climate, soldiers have to lug extra equipment around, jungles are often too thick for FPVs, and recharging batteries is another challenge.

Yet King listed three things his brigade gains from participating in Balikatan: becoming familiar with an environment the soldiers might one day fight in; learning from partners; and rehearsing how to fight together.

Underscoring their modernization push, these Hawaii-based soldiers were carrying the latest M7 assault rifles, and new M1301 Infantry Squad Vehicles (ISV) provided them rapid maneuverability.

Lightning Lab innovation

Elsewhere, Lightning Labs illustrates how the 25th Infantry Division is prioritizing innovation and iteration. This cell was designed to accelerate the adoption of new technologies.

The Kestrel “killer” FPV quadcopter, measuring five inches across and capable of swarming, is one such fruit. CW3 Aaron Dunson, Operations Officer of Lightning Labs, said the Kestrel is designed for mass production. The aim is to get them into the hands of soldiers so they can identify their capabilities and limitations.

Lightning Labs is also developing a high-speed drone interceptor. In addition, the lab was testing a containerized solar-panel micro grid to generate electricity, a quieter alternative to diesel generators. Dunson described it as “a very viable solution” in the Philippines.

He shared that his cell is covering capability gaps while industry races to catch up. “Our piece of this pie is to identify the opportunity and then present it to the subject matter experts within the division and say, ‘Is this usable?’”

Forge ahead

Another innovation appeared last year – the Forge – an INDOPACOM initiative where a dozen Army and Marine personnel run an expeditionary manufacturing capability based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. It is armed with deployable equipment like industrial-grade 3D printers (polymer and metal), milling machines and 3D scanners.

The Forge comes up with rapid solutions. During Balikatan, for example, a road grader from an engineering unit was disabled due to broken bolts. Instead of waiting ten weeks for spares to arrive from the U.S., the Forge reverse-engineered and manufactured them in six hours.

Likewise, soldiers complained of broken bipods on their new M50 machine guns, so the unit came up with a 3D-printed solution to fix that too.

The Forge’s services have been in demand throughout Balikatan. It had 36 projects on the go, with twelve completed by halfway through the exercise. One of them was producing 300 Kestrel drone frames.

The Forge saves soldiers time and money. CW2 Kevin Ton, officer in charge of the Forge, said it had saved $23,000 and a cumulative 96 months in waiting time for spare parts in the first week of Balikatan alone.

With multiple security challenges in Asia-Pacific – high among them being Chinese belligerence – there is a need for the Army to adapt quickly and to speedily field the latest technologies.

The 25th Infantry Division epitomizes this rapid change that United States Army Pacific is undergoing. Another example is that it is the Army’s only infantry division to possess HIMARS rocket launchers.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the strait, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy. Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in their weeks-long war.

The up to $100 million contract for the San Francisco artificial intelligence company Domino Data Lab could quicken this process with software that can teach underwater drones to identify new types of mines in a matter of days.

“Mine-hunting used to be a job for ships,” Thomas Robinson, Domino’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with Reuters. “It’s becoming a job for AI. The Navy is paying for the platform that lets it train, govern, and field that AI at a speed required for contested waters that block global trade and imperil sailors.”

Last week, the U.S. Navy awarded the up to $99.7 million contract to expand Domino’s role as the AI backbone of the Navy’s Project AMMO – Accelerated Machine Learning for Maritime Operations – a program to make underwater mine detection faster, more accurate, and less dependent on human sailors.

The software integrates data from multiple sensor types, including side-scan sonar and visual imaging systems, and allows the Navy to monitor how well various AI detection models are performing in the field, identify failures, and push corrections to improve performance.

The core of Domino’s pitch – and the Navy’s wager – is speed. Before the company’s involvement, updating the AI models that power the Navy’s unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to recognize new or previously unseen mines could take up to six months. Domino says it has cut that cycle to days.

Robinson illustrated the relevance to the Middle East crisis: “If there were UUVs in the Baltic Sea trained on Russian mines, and then they needed to be deployed to the Strait of Hormuz to detect Iranian mines, with Domino’s technology, the Navy could be ready in a week rather than a year.”

A Navy spokesman was not immediately able to provide comment.

U.S. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told audience members at Modern Day Marine in Washington on Thursday that the demand for ARG-MEUs has exceeded the 3.0 presence he previously called for.

“I won’t say how many of the ARG-MEUs our combat commanders asked for, but it is well north of three,” he said. “Like double that.”

Calls for ARG-MEUs are coming from the U.S. military’s Southern Command, European Command, U.S. Central Command and U.S. Africa Command.

A 3.0 presence indicates a three-ship ARG-MEU deployed at all times: one out of the East Coast, one out of the West Coast and the 31st MEU delivering periodic deployments out of Okinawa, Japan.

Currently, the 22nd MEU is participating in Operation Southern Spear and the 31st MEU is in the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury.

The 11th MEU is reportedly en route toward the Middle East to support Operation Epic Fury, but as of this week was conducting routine patrols around the southern Philippines.

Smith labeled ARG-MEUs the most flexible tool in the Defense Department inventory, providing humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation operations and key strike capabilities.

The ARG-MEUs in recent years have been more relevant than ever before, Smith added, but sustaining the pace proved difficult. This struggle emphasized the Marine Corps’ and Navy’s need to return to a permanent 3.0 ARG-MEU presence.

“This is our number one priority and it remains my personal north star as a commandant,” Smith said.

The Navy’s current inventory of amphibious ships, however, is not enough to address this goal, according to Smith.

The Navy holds an inventory of 32 amphibious warfare ships, but half of the fleet is in poor condition and poorly maintained, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

A defense official told Military Times in August 2025 that the readiness rate of amphibious ships had dropped to 41% despite the Marine Corps previously stating that the amphibious readiness rate needed to remain at 80% or higher to complete missions.

To remedy the ongoing issue, the Marine Corps is focusing on optimizing maintenance schedules, investing in service life extensions and procuring new ships.

Expeditionary Warfare Director Brig. Gen. Lee Meyer told reporters Tuesday at the Modern Day Marine exposition that the Navy recently completed a study on Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, which led to the service life extension of the USS Wasp.

Meyer said the Navy and Marine Corps would also study other amphibious assault ships to see if they could extend their lifespan, with the services expecting a completed study of amphibious dock landing ships in the next several days.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recently partnered to launch the Amphibious Force Readiness Board, which will seek to tackle the best pathway forward to maintain, modernize and build the service’s amphibious fleet to prioritize availability.

The board wasn’t a study group, according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, who spoke at Modern Day Marine Thursday. It was a platform to produce action, he said.

“Far too long amphibious readiness has absorbed the cumulative effects of aging systems, deferred maintenance, supply chain, friction, workforce shortages and high operational tempo,” said Caudle. “So, we are attacking the problem directly.”

The service is “aggressively pursuing” an operational demo in 2027 for the Aerial Logistics Connector, or ALC, said Lt. Col. Ben Link, head of vertical takeoff and landing concepts for the Marines’ Cunningham Group, an aviation-focused innovation unit.

“We will fight with prototypes and rapidly learn and refine our requirements,” Link told an audience at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C. “ALC’s mission is clear and critical — to provide autonomous airborne logistics to sustain the stand-in force. ALC is a key component to all-domain logistics, which enables [the Department of Defense], ensuring our distributed units remain supplied, lethal and combat-ready.”

Last June, Airbus and the Alexandria, Va.-based Parry Labs announced a partnership to develop a drone version of the UH-72 Lakota helicopter for the ALC program. This month, the team, working alongside L3Harris Technologies and Shield AI, announced the aircraft’s fourth autonomous flight test, also saying they demonstrated the relevant technologies aboard an Airbus H-145 Multi-Role Light-Twin helicopter, “executing autonomous flight while avoiding obstacles and safely landing in conditions that mirror real-world environments.”

Near Earth Autonomy is also working on ALC, conducting an autonomous test flight last year on a Leonardo AW139 helicopter.

ALC is not to be confused with Medium Aerial Resupply Vehicle — Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL), a similarly sized autonomous logistics chopper. This month, Near Earth and Lockheed Martin received separate prototyping contracts or MARV-EL.

In fact, the Marine Corps is likely still tinkering with its concepts for the aircraft.

“They’re very complimentary, very similar requirements, but we’re taking a deep look at where we are today and where that system needs to go,” Link said. “As it stands today, MARV-EL is designed to be an organic logistics air vehicle owned and operated by the ground force. ALC is general support to the [Marine Air-Ground Task Force], owned and operated by the aviation side.”

Nonetheless, the plan to push ALC out to one of the Marine Littoral Regiments in the Pacific for tinkering shows a growing interest in using these units for testing, experimentation and concept development. In 2025, leaders of the Okinawa-based 12th MLR hailed the utility of the autonomous low-profile vessel (ALPV), a logistics platform based on a narco-sub that was sent to them for testing. In planning guidance released last October, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith announced that the semi-submersibles would be transitioning to a program of record for the Corps based on their trial period in the Pacific.

Link said the Corps wanted both of the prime vendors for ALC to provide a flying prototype for the demo.

“Very likely, they will not be completely autonomous aircraft, as we envision to achieve by the end of the middle tier of acquisition,” he said, adding the service was now two years into a five-year acquisition program. “What we’re looking to pull is two aircraft at a minimum, one from each vendor, that’s optionally piloted, so we can run a full mission autonomy experiment with our MLR OCONUS and really put it in [the Marines’] hands … so we really are looking to learn a lot from their perspective on what they need, as one of the use cases for ALC.”

As the Marines illustrated in a Venn diagram chart at the conference, the service is developing ALC, its large autonomous logistics platform, alongside four other autonomous aircraft projects: MUX-TACAIR, a collaborative combat aircraft designed to fly alongside manned fighters; Future Attack Strike (FASt), an attack platform that may be optionally piloted and will also be optimized for manned-unmanned teaming; MUX-MALE, the Corps’ MQ-9 Reaper program for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; and Organic ISR, a future Group 3 UAS that will “provide persistent overhead coverage for Marines on the ground, in addition to executing whatever missions that the [aviation combat element] requires to remain relevant in the future,” Link said.

If that’s confusing now, it’s likely to become only more so in coming years.

“Fast forward a few years, and you look at emerging capabilities, and the lines start to blur,” said Maj. Michael Zbonack, a planner with Future Concepts UAS. ” … The end result that we’re driving for is a high-low mix of a family of systems delivering a wide range of capabilities to support the MAGTF.”

Expeditionary Warfare Director Brig. Gen. Lee Meyer told reporters Tuesday at Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington that the Navy lengthened the operability window of the USS Wasp following a study on Wasp-class amphibious assault ships.

“The CNO approved the service life extension of the USS Wasp,” Meyer said. “He extended it by five years until 2034. The other LHDs, we’ve got to study to see if we can extend them and the plan is going to be to do that.”

A study of amphibious dock landing ships is expected to be delivered by Naval Sea Systems Command within several days, Meyers added. The study will provide updates on the status of those landing ship docks and recommendations for service life extensions.

The report will also help inform the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ plans to sustain amphibious ships across their 40 year service life, with hopes of pushing it to 50, to bolster the service’s military readiness.

The Wasp’s new lease on life is an example of what the Navy and Marine Corps would like to do with other ships, but the services have yet to analyze what exactly that would look like, Meyer said.

The Navy’s amphibious fleet has faced numerous issues during its service life.

Three Wasp-class amphibious warships encountered engineering problems at sea in 2024, with the USS Wasp itself having a deployment delayed as a result of mechanical failures.

The fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act signed into law a requirement for the Navy to maintain at least 31 amphibious ships, including 10 amphibious assault ships.

The Navy holds an inventory of 32 amphibious warfare ships, but half of the fleet is in poor condition and poorly maintained, according to a 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

A defense official told Military Times in August 2025 that the readiness rate of amphibious ships had dropped to 41% despite the Marine Corps previously stating that the amphibious readiness rate needed to remain at 80% or higher to complete missions.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said at the 2026 Sea-Air-Space exposition that the current number of amphibious ships is not sufficient enough to meet requirements set forth by combatant commanders.

He spoke of extending the service life of ships to help address concerns over lacking fleet size.

Four amphibious ships are deployed across the globe currently, including the USS Tripoli and USS Boxer, which are stationed in the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury.

President Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 defense budget asks Congress to carve out funds for a new America-class amphibious assault ship and one San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock.

Brig. Gen. Sean Hoewing, head of the Corps’ newly established Risk Management Directorate, told an audience at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that, while the impacts of blast exposure and overpressure across time are still being studied, training supervisors have been instructed to take steps to limit prospective damage.

“If you’re an instructor on the range today, and you’re observing a Marine using a particular weapon system, we’ve already implemented distance requirements for the observer to be away from that weapon system,” Hoewing said. “Understanding that the Marine today with weapon systems that we use, many of them, they have to be in close proximity to the weapon. But anybody else that’s assisting doesn’t necessarily need to be inside that bubble where there would be danger. So those things are already being implemented.”

In February, according to Hoewing, the Corps established a baseline evaluation in a computer-based brain function assessment known as the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, or ANAM, for all troops designated “high risk,” including weapons instructors, range staff and others whose routine work puts them in proximity to overpressure.

By this September, he said in a presentation, ANAM data would be incorporated into Marines’ periodic health assessments, an annual four-part screening administered by Navy medicine. September 2027 will see baseline ANAM evals complete for all troops.

The Marine Corps is set to evaluate a study on the impacts of blast overpressure at different levels and update the risk threshold — now set at 4 pounds per square inch (PSI) — by September 2029.

“We’re still debating amongst the scientists and medical health professionals, with the periodicity … how frequently we will do those tests from here on out, whether it’s a part of your annual periodic health assessment that most Marines will go through, or whether it’s something that’s, you know, every two years or every three years,” Hoewing said. “In the meantime, our mandate is to get after doing this assessment.”

The Corps has also built a working group, he said, to determine what to do with the information being gathered. Those tasked with building awareness may inform Marines, as well as makers of military equipment and protective gear, of blast risks and thresholds.

Those in the working group from Marine Corps Training and Education Command will have “the largest stake,” Hoewing said, as they’ll have to develop mitigation methods and procedures in a space where avoiding blast exposure altogether isn’t an option.

“There might be policy regarding the use of [personal protective equipment] that would be within our lane,” he said. “But under the mitigation effort, there’s lots of things, whether it’s policy, range, regulations, new weapon systems and whatnot … we are one stakeholder of many in a team effort to make that happen.”

Training aids that allow Marines to build familiarity and proficiency without firing live weapons as often may also be part of the solution, according to an official with Marine Corps Systems Command who chimed in during the briefing.

“Our goal is mitigation without reducing our warfighting capability,” Hoewing said. “I wouldn’t keep anything off the table.”

The service released an inactivation schedule for fiscal 2026 that will see vessels either recycled, dismantled, deemed logistics support assets or transferred to the U.S. Maritime Administration, a government agency that oversees the disposal of naval vessels.

Los Angeles-class submarines USS Newport News and USS Alexandria, along with Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, are slated to be recycled.

The service is currently phasing out Los Angeles-class submarines — some of which have served for 40 years — and is in the process of replacing them with Virginia-class submarines.

Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Shiloh and USS Lake Erie, along with Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Germantown and Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oiler USNS John Ericsson, will be used as logistics support assets.

“Logistics Support Assets (LSA) will be used as a primary means of cannibalization and equipment removal for ships,” the Navy administrative message said.

There were only 10 Ticonderoga-class cruisers remaining in the Navy fleet as of April 23, 2025, according to the service.

The Navy built 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers beginning in 1980 but has been phasing them out of service, with hopes of completely retiring the remaining ships by fiscal 2027 and replacing them with its next-generation destroyer.

The cruiser was the first ship to wield the AEGIS Combat System, an advanced weapons platform that utilizes radar to detect, track and fire at targets.

The last Ticonderoga-class cruiser home-ported overseas began its return to the U.S. in March.

In the administrative message, the Navy said it also plans to dismantle the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth.

The Freedom-class has been plagued by mechanical problems, failed weapons systems and ballooning maintenance costs.

The service will also transfer the following ships to the U.S. Maritime Administration: Watson-class vehicle cargo ships USNS Red Cloud, USNS Watkins and USNS Pomeroy; Offshore Petroleum Distribution System vessel USNS Vadm. K. R. Wheeler; and Henry J. Kaiser-class underway replenishment oilers USNS Pecos and USNS Big Horn.

The tropical location was the west coast of Palawan, an elongated Philippine island on the edge of the South China Sea.

As a notional enemy amphibious force edged closer to the beach, Australian, Kiwi, Philippine and American troops hiding in foxholes camouflaged by palm fronds unleashed a barrage of small-arms fire.

Afterwards, as the repulsed “enemy” withdrew in disorder, a coup de grace was delivered by an explosive-laden, first-person-view drone. As silence returned to the Aporawan beach in Palawan, disabled unmanned surface vessels – representing enemy landing craft – drifted in the waves or sat burning on the shore.

This counter-landing, live-fire exercise on Apr. 27 was a keystone event in Exercise Balikatan, an annual series of multilateral war games held in the Philippines.

On the day, more than 500 troops worked shoulder to shoulder – which is what “Balikatan” means – to repel the notional enemy amphibious assault.

Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, explained the event’s “real value is showcasing our resolve to work together to defend the Philippine archipelago and to uphold the rules-based international order. So that’s the more important aspect of all the exercises we’re doing here.”

Palawan is an important location, Brawner added, since it faces the West Philippine Sea and the country’s exclusive economic zone.

“It’s really very important that we defend this territory of the Philippines, and we’re very fortunate that we have with us partners from like-minded nations.”

Although nobody was naming aloud the threat, China with the world’s largest armed forces is the obvious focus of attention in these Balikatan drills.

The South China Sea is witnessing a ramp-up of tensions as Beijing claims maritime territory and builds up reclaimed islands that act as forward military bases.

Involving approximately 17,000 troops from seven countries, Balikatan 2026 is being held from Apr. 20 to May 8.

The primary U.S. Marine Corps participation in the counter-landing exercise was Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D), currently comprising 1/5 Marines.

Col. George Flynn III, commander of MRF-D, told Defense News: “We have the ability to be a global force in readiness and in support of our allies.”

Flynn said the very fact that he was standing on that particular Palawan beach demonstrated the ability of the Marine Corps to show up when it is needed.

“We can talk about all the capabilities we have, but the integration of those capabilities is the cornerstone of how this is done right,” he said. “The friendships that we made being in the dirt in defensive positions alongside each other, that’s what really matters about this event.”

Maj. Gen. Thomas Savage, commander of the 1st Marine Division, was pleased with the conduct of the drill, which “was much more complex, with more countries integrated in the live-fire exercise.”

Asked whether the U.S. military is being sidetracked by the Iran war, Savage responded: “The United States has the capability to commit to all of our global commitments, and this alliance we have with the Philippines is rock solid.”

Nor did all this activity and other maritime drills go unnoticed by China.

The Southern Command of the People’s Liberation Army reported that a four-ship naval task force sailed near Luzon in response to “the current regional situation.”

Among the vessels was a Dongdiao-class intelligence gathering ship to soak up signals and electronic emissions.

Capt. Paul Michael Hechenova, commanding officer of the Philippine frigate BRP Miguel Malvar, said: “No confrontation, no radio challenges. They’re just here monitoring our activity.”