Hawaii-based Army units are continuing to play a central role in U.S.-Philippine relations as tensions mount between China and the Philippines.
On June 10, soldiers from the Schofield Barracks-based 25th Infantry Division, the Fort Shafter-based 196th Infantry Brigade and the Army Reserve’s 100th Infantry Battalion wrapped up Exercise Salaknib. The Army exercise was held in two parts, one that began in April and one in June—it was put on pause for the larger multinational Exercise Balikatan in May, in which the Hawaii troops also participated.
The latter half was run by soldiers from the 196th as part of the Army’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, a series of training ranges in Hawaii and Alaska to prepare soldiers for Pacific deployments. The training in the Philippines was part of the 196th Infantry’s “exportable ” version called JPRMC-X, which does training annually in a different Pacific country each year.
Philippine troops have trained in the Hawaii JPMRC exercises in recent years and want to develop their own version. 196th brigade commander Col. Bryan Martin said, “They call it a ‘combat training readiness area, ‘ and they’re trying to set one up … at Fort Magsaysay in Luzon, and it’s very much a model of JPMRC.”
The Philippine military has years of experience fighting rebel and terrorist groups across its islands, including the 2017 Battle of Marawi against Islamist Abu Sayyaf fighters…
