US-PHL naval exercises set to begin July 2

Navy spokesman Col. Omar Tonsay said in a phone interview Thursday that American and Filipino forces will again conduct an annual series of joint naval exercises, called Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training or CARAT 2012, starting Monday, July 2 in General Santos City. CARAT will end on July 10. “With this year’s exercise, the Philippine Navy will be able to enhance combined interoperability capability with the US Navy and the Philippine-US Coast Guards as well as test their personnel and naval assets operational readiness and ultimately, improve the naval defense capability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines by an exchange of doctrinal and tactical best practices," said Tonsay. Naval units Tonsay said the Americans are bringing in two Navy ships, the USS Vandergrift and USNS Safeguard, and a Coast Guard vessel, the USCG Waesche. Around 350 U.S. Navy personnel and 150 U.S. Coast Guard personnel will participate in the activity. The Vandergrift is a 4100 ton frigate and, while the Safeguard is a U.S. Navy Military Sealift Command salvage and rescue ship. The Waesche is a 4,306 t U.S. Coast Guard cutter Tonsay said the Philippine Navy has earmarked four ships: the corvettes BRPs Magat Salamat and Miguel Malvar, the fast patrol craft Salvador Abcede, and the coastal patrol craft Teotimo Figuracion, and 400 personnel for CARAT. Also, the Philippine Coast Guard has committed the BRP Pampanga and 50 personnel. The Pampanga was the PCG ship that recently patrolled the Panatag shoal. The aircraft to be employed by U.S. forces include an anti-submarine and maritime patrol P3C Orion plane, and a SH60B Seahawk helicopter. The Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard will be using an Islander patrol plane and a BO-105CB helicopter, respectively. “This year, they (PCG) were included on the request of the U.S. Coast Guard because it’s a counterpart of theirs. They (the U.S. Coast Guard) also would like to be interoperable with the Philippine Coast Guard and not with Philippine Navy only," said Tonsay. Training He said that the actual exercises will be held in the Mindanao Sea. The training activities lined up include a command post exercise; diving exercise; salvage exercise; search and rescue exercise; at-sea training; cross-training exercise; visit, board, search and seizure exercise; and maritime interdiction. Last year, the venue of the CARAT was Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and the year before that, it was held in Zambales. “The venue of the exercises rotate," said Tonsay. He added that this year’s exercise will include civil military operations in Glan, Sarangani. The town was hit by flashfloods last month, leaving two people dead with scores others were reported missing. — DVM, GMA News