The powerful mid-range missile system that Washington deployed to the Philippines for the Balikatan joint exercises will remain in the country indefinitely even after the conclusion of Salaknib Phase 2 in September, the Philippine Army clarified yesterday.
Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala issued the clarification after he said Wednesday the Typhon missile system will be returned to the US by September.
He told Manila Standard the missile system will stay in the country until the training objectives of Salaknib have been met.
“The employment and redeployment of the MRC will still depend on the result of the training evaluation that will be conducted to ensure that the training objectives of Salaknib have been met,” Dema-ala said in a text message.
“As long as we have not met these objectives, we will still need the MRC here in the country,” he added.
Dema-ala said the Army plans to “maximize our personnel training takeaways with this capability (MRC) for us to be a responsive Army and be able to provide our troops with added knowledge and skills on the weapon’s technology.”
This is intended to improve the interoperability of the joint and combined operations with the US forces, he said.
The ground-based mid-range capability (MRC) is able to launch Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles. This was used for a simulated firing drill during the Balikatan exercise in the South China Sea in May.
Salaknib is an annual bilateral exercise led by the Philippine Army and sponsored by the US Army Pacific. It is designed to enhance the US and Philippine Army’s capacity and interoperability “across the spectrum of military operations.”
