Four F-35B stealth fighters from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) conducted the launch of seven JDAM GBU-32-500 guided bombs against targets located on the west coast of Luzon in the South China Sea, during a Combined Exercise with personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
In the aforementioned exercise, named Marine Aviation Support Activity 2024, intelligence information from unmanned aircraft of the Philippine Navy and Air Force was utilized and transmitted via orders to a C-130J orbiting near the operations area. From there, this asset relayed the necessary targeting information to four F-35B fighters from the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 214.
Once the F-35Bs identified their targets, this information was transmitted to the combined command center, where the launch of guided bombs against test targets was coordinated. The 199th Fighter Squadron of the U.S Air Force also provided a defensive combat air patrol consisting of two F-22A Raptors for the Marine Corps aircraft.
Such combined activities with U.S military forces are of great importance to the Philippine Marine Corps, leading units in one of Manila’s modernization and rearmament processes through the adoption of the Archipelagic Defense Concept with the incorporation of new types of anti-ship missiles. However, this process is not without difficulties, as the unit must undergo a radical transformation after decades where its primary preparation focused on scenarios and deployments geared towards counterterrorism and international security. Now, with successive tensions with China, readiness for high-intensity conflict with the Asian Giant required extensive reform and the need to increase cooperation with allied forces such as those of the United States.
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