Off the shores of Palawan, more than 3,600 troops from Australia and the Philippines are taking part in their largest-ever military drills, marking a decisive shift in Canberra’s Indo-Pacific security strategy.
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Exercise Alon, launched on Friday, is taking place less than 300 nautical miles (555km) from the Philippine-held Thitu Island in the Spratly archipelago – an area at the heart of escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims the Spratly island group alongside almost all of the contested waterway – claims disputed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, among others.
Named after the Filipino word for “wave”, Alon encompasses live-fire drills, amphibious landings, air support operations and special forces manoeuvres. Among the Australian assets deployed are a guided-missile destroyer, F/A-18 fighter jets, Javelin anti-tank missiles and C-130 transport aircraft.
Observers from the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Indonesia are attending the drills, which are scheduled to conclude on August 29.
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