Aaron-Matthew Lariosa – August 1, 2024 7:21 PM
U.S. and Philippine warships rendezvoused near a disputed South China Sea feature to conduct a joint maritime patrol on Wednesday.
USS Mobile (LCS-26) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) met off Leslie Bank, a maritime feature within Manila’s exclusive economic zone and Beijing’s 10-dash line claim. The littoral combat ship and ex-Coast Guard Hamilton-class cutter drilled in bilateral surface operations and communication, with a video released by the Armed Forces of the Philippines claiming that the two vessels took up a patrol formation.
According to the Navy, the joint patrol was meant to “demonstrate the strength of the alliance between the two nations and further advances combined capabilities in the maritime domain which support peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”
“Sailing together demonstrates commitment to our continued coordination with the Philippine Navy,” Capt. Justin Harts, commander of Destroyer Squadron 15, said in a press release on the maritime cooperative activity.
Joint patrols were envisioned in 2022 and 2023 to bring foreign partners into the South China Sea and Luzon Strait as a show of support. Philippine warships and aircraft have taken part in 10 bilateral and multilateral maritime and aerial patrols with countries including Canada, Australia, Japan and the U.S. since November 2023.
France has also been eyed as a participant pending the completion of an agreement between the two countries that would permit enhanced defense cooperation.
Despite the beginning of joint patrols last fall, incidents between Philippine and Chinese forces continued to escalate. The China Coast Guard’s use of water cannons, rammings and boarding actions eventually came to a head on a June 17 resupply mission when Canadian, Japanese, Philippine and U.S. jointly patrolled in the South China Sea.
This is the first time the Armed Forces of the Philippines has identified the relative location of a joint patrol, with a press release on the exercise saying the two vessels met at Leslie Bank, located 100 miles from the province of Palawan. While the feature is claimed by China as Yonghi Tan and Vietnam as Bãi Vĩnh Tuy, compared to other hotspots throughout the region, there is almost no active contest over the feature.
Following the exercise, Ramon Alcaraz resumed patrol duties and found a sunken Vietnamese fishing vessel at Jackson Atoll. It was later confirmed that the crew was rescued by another boat.
Four days before the maritime cooperative activity, the Philippines successfully resupplied its outpost at Second Thomas Shoal, BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57), following a yet-to-be-released agreement with China over the resupply of the grounded Second World War-era landing tank ship. Despite Manila and Beijing publicly disagreeing on the specifics of the deal, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken lauded the bilateral effort and urged China to uphold its end of the deal.
The joint patrol also occurred during Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to the Philippines, where he met with other high-ranking officials to finalize plans for further defense cooperation and modernization efforts under a half-billion-dollar investment from Washington into the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Austin also visited Subic Bay to examine potential defense industrial base opportunities at the former U.S. naval installation.
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