Philippines, U.S. Test Air Defenses as China Seizes Reef

The 960th Air and Missile Defense Group of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) participated in a Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) with the US Marine Corps' 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion and the US Army's 35th Air Defense Artillery at the Naval Education Training and Doctrine Command (NETDC) in San Antonio, Zambales on Friday, April 25, 2025. Image via the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

By Ted Aljibe

Missiles fired off the coast of the northern Philippines Sunday as U.S. and Filipino forces conducted their first integrated defense drills, hours after China said it had seized control of a reef claimed by Manila.

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