The US Marine Corps demonstrated two key defensive capabilities during recently completed multinational maneuvers in the Philippines

by Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News

The US Marine Corps demonstrated two key defensive capabilities during recently completed multinational maneuvers in the Philippines. 

   Balikatan 2025 featured 14,000 personnel from the US, Philippines, Australia, Canada and Japan during two weeks of exercises. Another 16 countries were there as observers. Participants faced a number of problems – including how to defend against a simulated amphibious invasion in the South China Sea. 

   Marines from the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion took part in an integrated air and missile defense event in the western coastal province of Zambales, using their newly-acquired Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) The system is mounted on an Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and integrates multiple weapons into a platform designed for low-altitude defense. 

   It uses machine guns, chain guns and air-to-air launchers to take out unmanned aerial vehicles. The system was first used in February in Hawaii, shooting down drones in an exercise. 

   Last month, the Pentagon released video of Marines in the Philippines attaching the FIM-92 Stinger MANPAD (Man-Portable Air Defense) launchers to the MADIS.   

   Meanwhile, for the first time, the new Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) was deployed during the exercise – in this case on Batan Island, in the northernmost part of the Philippines just south of Taiwan. The system was used to conduct simulated attacks on passing ships. 

   “Walking off the C-130 with NMESIS onto that island was one small step for a Marine and one giant step for US-Philippine-delivered sea denial capabilities,” said the commanding officer of the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, Col. John Lehane. 

   “One of the things we looked at is, if you can control choke points, then you control the commerce that goes through them. And so any place where you find key maritime terrain like that, that’s a suitable place  to put a weapons system like that.”    

   The Marines’ goal is to have MADIS crews provide protection the NMESIS. Lehane said that would allow the formation “to conduct maritime strike by giving the medium-range missile battery time to emplace, fire the NMESIS and displace without fear of being targeted by drones and small unmanned aerial systems.” 

   Balikatan has ended but Lehane’s regiment will stay in the Philippines for a while before returning to Hawaii. It will take part in another exercise with Philippine forces that ends June 6. It will focus on amphibious operations, social operations and coastal defense. The maneuvers will again take place in northern Luzon and the Batanes Islands.  

Jim Morris is Warrior Vice President, News. He is a former executive and senior editor and producer at ABC News and Bloomberg TV