Marines Help Philippine Armed Forces Develop Strike Plans for BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Antwon Brooks, a fire support Marine with Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company Detachment – North, Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia, I Marine Expeditionary Force, and a Philippine marine with Coastal Defense Regiment, Philippine Marine Corps, write down targeting information during maritime fires and effects training as part of Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum 26.4 on Camp Bojeador, Philippines, Aug. 26, 2026. US Marine Corps photo U.S. and Philippine Marines are training how to defend Manila’s coastal waters through maritime strike rehearsals that simulate the use of recently acquired BrahMos anti-ship missiles, USNI News has learned.

According to images recently released by the Pentagon, the drills practiced the process of forming a kill chain using notional Armed Forces of the Philippines drones and ground-based anti-ship missiles against simulated maritime targets.

At Manila’s northernmost Marine base in Luzon on Aug. 25, American and Filipino planners plotted Air Force Hermes drones to track a surface action group in support of a BrahMos anti-ship missile strike. The simulated maritime targets were represented by two Type 052D-class guided-missile destroyers, a Type 054A-class frigate and a Type 901 fast combat support ship – vessels currently in service with China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy.

“Training alongside the Coastal Defense Regiment gives Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia Marines and Sailors valuable insight into how our Philippine counterparts approach maritime defense within the unique geography and operating environment of the Philippines,” Capt. MacKenzie Margroum, a spokesperson for the Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia, told USNI News.

The training occurred during Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum 26.4 and allowed forces from both nations to practice target identification and fire planning on maritime targets, Margroum said.

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Antwon Brooks, a fire support Marine with Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company Detachment – North, Marine Rotational Force – Southeast Asia, I Marine Expeditionary Force, conducts fire support team training alongside Philippine marines with 4th Marine Brigade, Philippine Marine Corps, during Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum 26.4 in Bojeador, Philippines, Aug. 25, 2026. US Marine Corps photo The bilateral Marine Corps efforts are part of Washington’s broader effort to increase the alliance’s long-range strike capabilities against adversary naval forces near the Southeast Asian archipelago’s waters. In recent years, U.S. and Philippine forces have held annual small to large-scale exercises increasingly focused on defending coastal waters. These drills involved the debut of new American long-range missile systems in the Northern Philippines near Taiwan, USNI News reported in April.

Manila’s Marine missileers are developing the procedures and tactics required to operate the Indian-made BrahMos. Capable of traveling at three times the speed of sound with a 400-pound explosive warhead, the missiles were previously procured by the Philippines through a $375 million deal in 2022 to meet coastal defense requirements amid China’s assertive posture in the South China Sea. The missiles are the first of their type to be operated by the Philippine military.

The Coastal Defense Regiment’s first BrahMos facility was built at a base in Western Luzon facing Scarborough Shoal, a contested maritime feature between Manila and Beijing. Chinese warships, such as the Type 052D destroyers and Type 054A frigate represented in the maritime strike drill, have been involved in incidents at Scarborough. Last summer, a Chinese guided-missile destroyer collided with a China Coast Guard cutter in a fatal incident that killed two people.

Additional detachments and facilities are planned for Northern Luzon and Palawan. From these planned deployments, the Philippine Marine Corps can hold transiting warships and artificial island bases under threat.

“Their experience operating across the archipelago reinforces the importance of mobility, adaptability, local knowledge, and integrating capabilities across distributed locations,” Margroum said.