The Philippine Navy (PN) will host a bilateral naval exercise with the United States Navy (USN) dubbed as "Exercise SAMASAMA" next month.
Slated from October 2 to 13, Exercise SAMASAMA "aims to further strengthen international defense cooperation and advance a rules-based international order," according to Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs office.
"The exercise activities were designed to further enhance the PN's naval warfare capabilities as the country's offshore combat force for maritime security operations," Ileto said on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
Exercise SAMASAMA will cover the fundamentals of anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, anti-air warfare, and electronic warfare.
The opening ceremony on Oct. 2 at the PN headquarters in Manila will be graced by PN Flag Officer in Command Vice Adm. Toribio Adaci Jr.
Ileto noted that the interoperability exercises between the two navies will focus on warfighting serials.
Meanwhile, subject matter expert exchanges (SMEEs) and humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR) table-top events will also be held to improve PN's maritime integration and combined interoperability with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), and United Kingdom Royal Navy (UKRN).
Further, the French Navy (FN) and RAN will send personnel to join the SMEEs while the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) and Indonesian Navy (IN) will field observers.
Ileto said the Terms of Reference with the participating non-Status of Visiting Forces of Agreement (SOFA) partner-countries were already approved and signed in accordance with Philippine laws.