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The U.S. military is reminding both allies and foes it has not lost its focus on Asia, even with its significant deployments to the Middle East. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from northern Luzon Island in the Philippines, where the U.S. is staging its biggest ever annual drills closer to regional flashpoints, Taiwan and the South China Sea. And a warning that this story includes the sound of gunfire.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROCKET ARTILLERY FIRE)
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Rocket artillery rounds blast out of the dunes and trail smoke over the shore. General Ronald Clark, commander of the U.S. Army Pacific, explains the setup on the beach.
RONALD CLARK: From positions on land, we're going to conduct this counterlanding live fire to prevent an adversary from potentially seizing this key terrain.
KUHN: Filipino soldiers are dug in to the north, Japanese to the south. Seven nations, including France, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have sent more than 17,000 troops to the exercises known in Tagalog as balikatan, or shoulder to shoulder.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
KUHN: Any imaginary enemies that make it past the aircraft and artillery are met on the beach with small arms fire. Japan has not sent combat troops to the Philippines since 1941, when the Imperial Army landed about 50 miles south of here three days after attacking Pearl Harbor. Colonel Sho Tomino commands a Japanese amphibious regiment. Japan's constitution bans it from waging war. But Tomino says he can be here because a Japan-Philippines agreement took effect last year, allowing joint military training in each other's countries.
SHO TOMINO: (Through interpreter) Despite the language barrier, through this series of exercises, by working side by side and shoulder to shoulder, I firmly believe that we can conduct operations together.
KUHN: The U.S. is incorporating weapons and tactics used in other conflicts into the balikatan drills. Sergeant Austin Defreitas prepares a small drone which can carry explosives.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRONE WHIRRING)
AUSTIN DEFREITAS: They're pretty much just kamikaze one-way drones. They don't come back. Right here are the goggles we fly with. It's how you see through the camera right here. And then it's just simple controller. Fly it like a video game, pretty much.
KUHN: The U.S. Army is also deploying missiles to the first island chain, which includes the Philippines and Japan, to deter Chinese ships. Air and sea power are usually seen as the decisive forces in the Pacific, but that's changing, says 25th Infantry Division Commander Major General James Bartholomees III.
JAMES BARTHOLOMEES III: What we're learning from watching the fighting in Ukraine and in other places in the world is that the benefit of land forces to control seas cannot be denied.
KUHN: Some experts warn that deploying more U.S. missiles around China could lead to military escalation. General Clark sees it differently.
CLARK: It's not about escalation. It's really about deterrence. I mean, what you're looking at on this beachhead is a defense in depth. So it's a defensive measure. It's not an offensive operation. It's basically to defend against an aggressor.
KUHN: Richard Heydarian is a Filipino political scientist based in Oxford, England. He argues that the Philippines' only option is to strengthen military deterrence against China because it's too close to Taiwan geographically and too close to the U.S. as an ally.
RICHARD HEYDARIAN: The Philippines just declaring neutrality is not tenable, and I don't think China will ever trust the Philippines to be neutral in any conflict over Taiwan. So the Philippines is a target, whether it wants it or not. It's just a question of how it prepares accordingly.
KUHN: China has warned its neighbors that tying themselves to the U.S. will make them less safe. To underline that point, China has sent its own warships to conduct live fire exercises east of Luzon.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Laoag City, Ilocos Norte Province, Philippines.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLAWED MANGOES' "FRAGILITY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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