More than 17,000 American and Filipino soldiers are expected to join the military exercises between the United States and Philippine armed forces that will be held in the northern part of Luzon, Palawan and some parts of the Visayas in April this year. Col. Michael Logico, director of the Joint and Combined Training Center, Armed Forces of the Philippines Education, Training and Doctrine Command, said the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) 2023 will also be participated by around 111 soldiers from Australia. “They (Australians) are actual participants. They will be taking part in smaller events, from special operations to mostly smaller land-based exercises,” said Logico, who is also the spokesperson of the Balikatan 2023. Logico said around 12,000 US soldiers will join while the rest will come from the AFP. The Balikatan 2023 will be held from April 11 to 28. He said there will be observers from Japan, adding that while they extended the invitation to the Japanese military, the latter begged off due to the absence of Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Japan and the Philippines. The official said the US will be bringing in their military assets while on the part of the AFP, the newly-acquired frigates, the FA-50 fighter jets and the newly-acquired artillery will be used. “This is officially the largest Balikatan exercise… we will be operating in the areas of Northern Luzon, Palawan and Antique,” said Logico. This year’s Balikatan exercises, according to Logico, will feature new defense war games that include cyber defense exercises. “In the past Balikatan, we did not have cyber defense exercises, now we are going to be exercising outside our traditional training areas,” said Logico. Another part of the war games, he said, are live fire exercises in the seas. “It’s always been an interoperability exercise to test our concepts for maritime defense, for coastal defense and maritime domain awareness,” said Logico. “We are here to practice, we are here to show that we are combat ready,” he added.