A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines.
US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise.
The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported.
Photo: Screen grab from Google Earth
“The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access point to enter or exit the Pacific Ocean from the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and the deployment of NMESIS allows the US to assert control over that access,” Ben Lewis, a co-founder of PLATracker and an expert on the Chinese military, was quoted as saying.
The Naval Strike Missile has a reported operational range of more than 185km — just short of the 190km stretch of water that separates Taiwan proper from the Batanes Islands, the northernmost territory of the Philippines.
The Philippine News Agency on Tuesday said the US Marine Corps deployed an unspecified number of NMESIS launchers in the Philippines, citing Philippine Army Brigadier General Michael Logico.
Balikatan 25 is part of a larger joint exercise involving 3,000 Filipino and 2,000 US troops, a Philippine military spokesperson said in an earlier report.
The drills are designed to improve joint all-domain operational capabilities, enhance warfighting readiness and showcase the bilateral commitment to defending the Philippines’ territorial integrity, they were cited as saying.
Separately, the US Marine Corps on Wednesday confirmed that the Naval Strike Missile-armed 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment would participate in Balikatan 25.
During the exercise, several NMESIS launchers would be airlifted by US Army and Marine Corps aviation units to conduct maritime key terrain security operations across multiple islands in the Batanes, it said.
The regiment’s fire control center would coordinate its batteries in simulated missile strikes without live fire, it added.
“Working with the government and Armed Forces of the Philippines to bring the NMESIS into the Philippines has been a significant step in the right direction for the reaffirmation and strengthening of US-Philippine relations,” regiment commander Colonel John Lehane was quoted as saying.
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