The Philippines and the United States will hold the 39th Balikatan military exercises in the West Philippine Sea and other areas, with more than a dozen countries serving as observers on April 22 to May 10.

The US Embassy in the Philippines said at least 16,000 troops from the Philippines and US will take part before observers from countries which includes Japan, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.

For the first time, troops from the French Navy along with contingents from the Australian Defence Force will join Balikatan.

The Philippine, the US, and the French navies plan to conduct a Multilateral Maritime Exercise in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, the West Philippine Sea.

"Each year, we work closely with AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) senior leaders to make Balikatan more challenging. This year, we’ve increased the scope, scale, and complexity across all domains," Lt. Gen. William Jurney, commander of US Marine Corps Forces Pacific, said.

"We’re building military readiness across the full range of combined and joint operations. It’s our most expansive Balikatan yet," he added

This year’s Balikatan is organized into three main exercises.

The field training exercise features four combined joint all-domain operations, which include the following: exercises in protecting key terrain in Luzon and Palawan in support of territorial defense; rapidly moving long range, precision strike capabilities and using them in targeting simulated threats; tracking simulated air threats and targeting them with multiple air and missile defense systems; and integrating multilateral air and land platforms to increase awareness of the maritime security situation.

The embassy statement said the exercise forces will be concluded by targeting simulated enemy forces and sinking an “enemy” ship. DMS