The Philippines and the United States have kicked off the 40th iteration of their annual "Balikatan" joint military exercise. The US military is set to deploy a cutting-edge weapon system at this year's drill. It comes as tensions between Manila and Beijing ratchet up over their competing territorial claims in the South China Sea and China's aggressive actions around Taiwan.



At Monday's opening ceremony in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Gen. Romeo Brawner, chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, called for the exercise to "embody unity in strength and herald a promise of peace through preparedness."



A total of over 14,000 troops from the two countries are taking part in the 19-day exercise, whose name means "shoulder to shoulder" in Filipino.



Both forces will conduct live-fire defense training simulating missile attacks along the Philippine coast facing the South China Sea. They'll also carry out amphibious landing exercises on northern coastal areas and outlying islands near Taiwan to strengthen joint operational coordination.



The US side will deploy the NMESIS anti-ship missile system and unmanned surface vessels to the Philippines for the first time as part of joint training. The missile has a range of over 180 kilometers and is mounted on an unmanned vehicle.



The exercise comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump steps up its efforts to deter China. On his visit to the Philippines last month, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Indo-Pacific region faces increasing pressure from China and pledged to establish necessary deterrence.