Although the Philippines, the host of the military exercise, announced in a high-profile manner before the start of the exercise that the number and scale of participants in the exercise would be the highest in history, the United States and the Philippines also specially invited observer missions from more than a dozen countries to demonstrate their military strength in the South China Sea.
However, after the start of the US-Philippine joint military exercise, this US-Philippine joint military exercise, which seemed to be highly targeted and menacing, suddenly appeared wave after wave of accidents, first of all, the main ship of the United States participating in the exercise unexpectedly did not arrive because of a malfunction.
Then the Japanese Navy, which originally said that it was good to participate in the exercise, did not even send a single ship in the end, but only sent an observation group to wave the flag and shout, which made the US-Philippine exercise, which originally seemed to be full of deterrence, almost become a farce!
So, is the real strength of the U.S. and Philippine armed forces really like this? Or is the United States admitting to China in this way? Or is there any other purpose in the exercise?
The US-Philippine exercises are frequent, and the farce continues!
As everyone knows, the US-Philippine joint military exercise is mainly engaged in three items, one of which is the practice of the joint US-Philippine landing and seizure of the island, the second is the practice of sinking ships on the water, and the third is the practice of joint coastal defense of the US and Philippine forces!
Because of the operational drill of landing on the island and seizing the island, the United States has set up the main ship of this exercise as the amphibious landing ship USS Boxer, which has a displacement of 40,000 tons, and can be upgraded to a quasi-aircraft carrier after carrying the F35 with vertical take-off and landing, and it also has a good landing combat capability!
But the most critical capital ship of the exercise was suddenly declared malfunctioning just before the two countries were about to begin, and is still lying in the harbor of the San Diego Naval Base.
In the absence of this type of ship to replace it, the US-Philippine joint military exercise can only be carried out by relying on two dock landing ships, which makes the intensity of this exercise drop significantly!
In addition, before the start of this exercise, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had called for the US military to launch Typhon medium-range missiles to strike long-range targets during the exercise, in order to demonstrate the determination of the United States and the Philippines to advance and retreat together.
But only now after the exercise began, everyone learned that the US military had indeed deployed the Typhon intermediate-range missile system in the Philippines, but the missiles deployed by these intermediate-range missile systems were Standard 6 (SM6) missiles.
Friends who have been bombed by US missiles must know that this missile is a missile mainly based on air defense and anti-missile, and its maximum range is only 370 kilometers, and it is simply unable to attack Chinese mainland as the Philippines is clamoring for.
In addition, before the start of the US-Philippine joint military exercise, Marcos posted a heroic post hoping that everyone would participate in the exercise, which was tantamount to giving the Philippines a boost in disguise, but in this exercise, except for the United States, the Philippines, Australia, and France, the other 12 countries that accepted the invitation did not send warships to the Philippines to participate in the military exercise.
Even Japan, which had already accepted the invitation of the Philippines, did not send any warships to participate in this exercise at all, and Fumio Kishida promised very happily, but when he sent troops to participate in the exercise, he did not send troops at all!
What is the reason for the continuous problems of the US-Philippine joint military exercises?
Why did a military exercise in which a show of force aimed at the South China Sea attempt to deter China turn out to be a farce in the end? First, let's take a look at the malfunction of the amphibious assault ship "Boxer," which participated in this exercise.
In fact, before the start of the US-Philippine joint military exercise, there were foreign media reports that the United States and the Philippines had a dispute over the area of the exercise, and the United States believed that it would be appropriate to conduct the military exercise in the waters near the Philippines.
However, the Philippines wants to expand its influence and take the initiative to expand the exercise area to the South China Sea and nearby islands, which makes the United States feel that the problem is thorny, so they simply let the "boxer" fail, so that the scale of the exercise can be reduced and the nerves of the PLA are not so provoked!
Of course, all this is reported by foreign media, and it may be speculation by media people, and it is also possible that the truth of the facts is so! However, judging from the nearly 30 years of service of the amphibious landing ship "Boxer," it is very normal for a malfunction to lie down!
If the failure of the amphibious assault ship is completely accidental, then the medium-range missile system deployed by the United States in the Philippines has placed a standard Type 6 anti-aircraft missile with a range of only 400 kilometers, instead of a prisoner of war endurance missile with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.
In the end, Japan's reluctance to participate in the US-Philippine joint military exercise is a manifestation of the fact that the United States and Japan do not regard the Philippines as an ally at all, and that they only regard the Philippines as cannon fodder and a pawn that can be sacrificed at any time, so the United States is unwilling to participate in the dispute between China and the Philippines, and it is natural that Japan is unwilling to send troops! What conclusions do you think can be drawn from these problems that have arisen in the US-Philippine military exercises?