I spent five days observing a joint military exercise between Australia and the Philippines. Here’s what I learned.

Danielle Ireland-Piper

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The 11th principle of war is personality, muses Brigadier Dean Thompson as we talk at an airbase in the Philippines. Relationships matter.

Australia’s relationship with the Philippines has reached a new level of convergence, coming at a time of tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and unease in the region flowing from Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. This August saw the second iteration of Exercise ALON, a joint military exercise between Australia and the Philippines. Notably, the exercise takes part only in uncontested areas of the South China Sea.

If conflict broke out, this is just part of what Australia would have to do to defend itself and the region

I was invited by Joint Operations Command to an academic embed program in the Philippines to learn about the exercise. The inclusion of academics who teach, research and publish in this field is an invaluable way of connecting with the public.

The first Exercise ALON between Australia and the Philippines in 2023 was amphibious: Alon means “wave” in Tagalog. This time around, however, it was a joint operation and multi-service exercise involving army, navy and air force across the five domains (water, land, air, space, and cyber), as well as roles for observer nations such as Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand, and the United States. The exercise also required one of the largest airlifts of Australian forces in the Indo-Pacific region since 1999 to Timor-Leste. This meant moving the troops on more than 27 flights using just six C-17 military transport aircraft. If conflict broke out, this is just part of what Australia would have to do to defend itself and the region. It’s an extraordinary feat of logistics and one worth practising.

Operationally, the exercise was about joint force projection and freedom of manoeuvre. The Philippines has a much higher population density than Australia and the heat and humidity is challenging. It’s one thing to practise operations at home; quite another to make it work extraterritorially, and remain in accordance with international law, Australian law, and the law of the Philippines: everything from constitutional requirements and mariners’ notices to compliance with workplace health and safety and the storage of explosives.