PHOTO BY AFP (UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and Australia are set to hold the Exercise Amphibious and Land Operations (ALON 2025) within the Northern Luzon Command (NolCom) and Western Command (WesCom) next week.
The United States Marine Corps and the Royal Canadian Navvy will also join the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Australian Defense Forces (ADF) in the exercises involving over 3600 personnel.
“This year, we have taken a much more comprehensive approach to Exercise ALON [2025]. And in fact the planning has been going now for nearly five to eight months with the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” ADF Exercise Director McLeod Wood said Tuesday during a series of coordinated maritime activities southwest of Lubang in Mindoro.
“What it has resulted to was a major growth in our ability to interoperate with each other and other services across the Armed Forces of the Philippines in conducting activities together,” Wood added.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Australian Ambassador Marc Innes-Brown will be gracing the event where participating naval assets are the Philippine Navy’s (PN) BRP Jose Rizal (FF150) and the ADF’s HMAS Brisbane (DDG41). The exercises will feature a range of operations such as personnel transfer drills, a Communications Exercise (COMMEX), Officer of the Watch Manning Exercise (OOW MANNEX), Combined Anti-Submarine Exercise (CASEX), night steaming, among others..
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Major activities include Combined Joint Forcible Entry Operations (CJFEO) in San Vicente, Palawan on August 24 while a Combined Arms Live Fire Exercises (CALFX) – Close Air Support (CAS) will be held in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija on August. 27.
Additional cooperation areas include special operations integration and training activities; cyber resilience, civil military and religious capability engagement as well as Public Affairs.
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The CJFEO is set to showcase the Philippines and Australia’s alliance ability to operate across maritime domains. It will feature a sequence of coordinated air, sea and ground maneuvers. Highlights include reconnaissance, joint air bombardment and naval gunfire, small boat landings, beachhead seizure and final air assault.
The AFP will deploy the following assets:
Marine Battalion Landing Team-11 and 61st Force Recon Company with attached Small Unit Riverine Craft and Patrol Craft from Marine Corps Assault Boat Battalion;
Marine Battalion Landing Team – 9;
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Marine Battalion Landing Team – 7;
The ADF will deploy:
Joint Pre-Landing force with Combat Rubber Raiding Crafts;
HMAS Brisbane (DDG41) with MH-60R Seahawk Helicopter;
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RAAF EA-18G Growler
The CALFX will showcase land-air combat capabilities. It will test the combined forces’ ability to conduct tactical insertion, mobility and precision engagement reinforcing response to contingencies, enhancing command and control and air-ground coordination.
The AFP will deploy:
Philippine Air Force (PAF) A-29 Super Tucano;
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Philippine Navy (PN) and PAF AW 109 Helicopters;
PAF T-129 ATAK Helicopter;
ATMOS 155 MM Self-propelled Howitzer;
105MM Howitzer;
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81MM Mortar;
M113 Armored Personnel Carrier and Special Forces Vehicle .50 Cal.
The ADF will deploy:
155 MM M777 Howitzer;
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Australian Light Armored Vehicle (ASLAV) 25 mm cannon;
81 MM Mortars;
Heavy Machine Gun .50 Cal and Sniper Systems;
7.62 MM from MAG 58 Special Forces Machine Gun and Sniper Systems;
5.56 MM EF88 Steyr and Minimi;
40M MM MK47 Automatic Grenade Launcher;
FGM-148 Javelin Anti-tank weapon system;
9 MM Pistol;
RAAF F/A-18F Super Hornets
