MANILA, PHILIPPINES—The Marines will observe Corps-level command and management, Twenty first-century foraging and air assault in a projection into the primary island chain throughout an upcoming train within the Philippines.
Marine Rotational Pressure-Darwin, alongside its counterparts from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Japan Floor Self-Protection Pressure and Republic of Korea Marine Corps, will drill throughout the size of the Southeast Asian archipelago from the southernmost island of Tawi-Tawi to the northernmost territories in Batanes beginning subsequent week within the ninth iteration of KAMANDAG.
A Tagalog acronym that interprets to “cooperation of the soldiers of the ocean,” the drills have expanded in scope and scale lately as Manila sought enhanced protection cooperation with worldwide companions as a consequence of tensions with China over disputed claims within the South China Sea.
Among the many taking part items in KAMANDAG is a Marine Air-Floor Process Pressure based mostly in Darwin, Australia. Activated in 2012, the contingent and roles of the forward-deployed Marines have expanded in response to the service’s Pressure Design 2030 overhaul and regional necessities amid China’s navy modernization. Within the nearly decade and a half because the creation of MRF-D, the unit has tailored to new challenges. This yr’s rotation, composed of components from the I Marine Expeditionary Pressure in California, is the 14th of its type and has been working within the first island chain since early spring by way of drills within the Philippines.
“We’ve chosen a deliberate sequence of off-continent operations, actions and investments, and we’ve taken what was once seasonal coaching. It was a seasonal sort of coaching sequence and we cast it right into a year-round exercise. I’d say it has actual impression, and what it does is it really extends our attain deep into the primary island chain,” Col. Jason Armas, the commanding officer of the MRF-D 25.3 MAGTF, informed USNI Information in a telephone interview.
Armas’ males will partake in at the very least 4 drills within the Philippines this yr alone. In April, the formation educated on the southern island of Mindanao, a former hotbed of communist and radical Islamist insurgency, alongside native Marines, Military troops and regional police forces in Marine Train 2025. This was the second yr in a row the Australian-based Marines drilled in Mindanao.
Shortly after MAREX, MRF-D instantly shifted to the western island of Palawan to take part in Balikatan 2025. The Marines practiced coastal protection drills with Philippine and Australian forces on a seashore going through the disputed South China Sea and an air assault exercise in Balabac, one in every of 9 websites all through the nation that may host U.S. troops below the 2014 Enhanced Protection Cooperation Settlement. Armas claimed that the rotational deployment stipulated below the settlement allowed MRF-D to “practice in distinctive and difficult locations that we’ve by no means had the chance to coach earlier than.”
Following KAMANDAG, the Marines will be a part of Archipelagic Coastal Protection Continuum, one other coastal protection train within the Philippines to be held later this yr..
For KAMANDAG 9, the Marines will display their skill to scale from the command of a MAGTF to a whole Marine Corps at a mixed coordination middle, Armas mentioned.
“We are able to command and management the MAGTF on the O-6 stage, which is an expeditionary brigade-like functionality, and be capable to scale up with augmentation from Southern California, from I MEF to execute command and management of a Corps Ahead or a MEF ahead kind formation,” he mentioned.
Armas will probably be appearing as a deputy commander inside the mixed coordination middle workers, which a Philippine Marine Corps common will lead. He additionally emphasised to USNI Information the broader “stress take a look at” of MRF-D’s command and management capabilities not solely within the Philippines however throughout the Indo-Pacific. The unit has commanded Marines working in New Caledonia, Mindanao and Palawan from its house base in Darwin since its arrival within the area in April.
Other than alternatives to hone its command and management capabilities, MRF-D has realized maneuver and maintain within the Philippines in what Armas described as “Twenty first century foraging.”
“There’s additionally Twenty first century foraging, which is a part of Pressure Design 2030. How can we make the most of contracting to do issues like fundamental life assist and or mobility? And that’s develop into a part of how we not simply survive within the first island chain within the Philippines, however we thrive in that space. And we’re completely going to proceed to try this,” Armas mentioned.
Whereas the unit is organized as a MAGTF, its operations have closely relied on supporting aviation belongings comparable to Air Pressure C-130s and connected MV-22B Ospreys from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 364.
“In contrast to what you’d historically see from a Marine Expeditionary Unit that’s maritime centered utilizing naval delivery, we’re actually closely reliant on joint inner air fastened wing plane,” Armas mentioned.
For added actions, the Marines have utilized contracted Philippine civilian vessels, together with barges and different flat-bottomed delivery. The service didn’t element particular belongings. A whole lot of ferries and industrial touchdown craft tanks function all through the Philippines day by day.
“It’s an unimaginable alternative to increase our mobility and the way we do multimodal maneuver all through, actually, the Indo-Pacific,” he mentioned.
Armas additionally highlighted the teachings realized from their Philippine counterparts within the third Marine Brigade and 1st Marine Brigade, particularly in working within the jungle environments of Mindanao and Palawan.
Throughout KAMANDAG, MRF-D will take part in a key maritime terrain safety operations drill and an aerial assault.
Armas emphasised the strategic worth that workout routines like KAMANDAG carry to the U.S. and its companions within the area, stating that they allow the “skill to coach, function and combine aspect by aspect with our closest allies and companions.”
“That unity that it creates, that unity issues, it ensures that like-minded nations will stand able to defend a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he mentioned.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command put MRF-D on a warning order to assist Philippine forces throughout resupply operations to BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57) at Second Thomas Shoal final yr, in accordance with a report by Stars and Stripes. Former rotational pressure commanding officer Col. Brian Mulvihill informed Stars and Stripes that MRF-D was able to assist Manila.
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