About 8,000 U.S. and Filipino troops began annual military exercises on Monday, Reuters reported. Over the next two weeks, the allies will test their command-and-control, communications, logistics and mobility procedures to address humanitarian and maritime security, Philippine defence officials said. Their troops will also simulate retaking an oil-and-gas platform and practice an amphibious landing on a Philippine beach. "The Balikatan exercise is designed not to address a particular concern but the whole lump in the spectrum of warfare," Vice Admiral Alexander Lopez, the Philippine military's exercise director, told a news conference. Ash Carter, will be the first U.S. defense secretary to observe the exercises when he arrives next week, underscoring the significance of the war games for both countries.
