The United States and the Philippines are preparing to stage another act of "sinking ships and sending signals to China".

According to the US Naval Institute website, on the 25th, the US Navy confirmed that the multinational forces participating in the US-Philippine "Shoulder to Shoulder" exercise, including the US military, the Philippine military, and the Australian Defense Force, will integrate multiple platforms to perceive and conduct live-fire strikes on a retired warship in a certain area of the South China Sea.

In other words, during the US-Philippine military exercises, a live-fire target practice project will be conducted in the South China Sea, sinking a retired warship.

Speaking of target practice, the Philippines can "contribute" a bunch of such target ships to the US military

According to local media reports, the target selected for this target practice is the Philippine Navy's PS-19 "Ger Marval" frigate — not the new ship recently delivered by South Korea to the Philippines, but another vessel built by the US Navy in the 1940s. After retiring from the US Navy, the ship was first handed over to the Republic of Vietnam government, and later fell into the hands of the Philippines.

Until 2021, this "Ger Marval" was removed from the Philippine Navy's fleet list and selected as the target for the US-Philippine military exercise target practice.

According to the statement from the US military, the US Air Force will also participate in this year's target practice subject of the US-Philippine military exercise, with an expected deployment of several F-16 "Fighting Falcon" fighters to fire at the target ship. However, the statement did not reveal whether the Philippine military would participate in the target practice or simply watch the US military performance as in previous years.

Of course, some of the intimidating comments from certain US military personnel are also an indispensable part of the target practice subjects of the US-Philippine military exercise.

In the 2024 US-Philippine military exercise, the US allowed the Philippine military to fire a supersonic anti-ship missile

Air Force Chief David Alvin boasted on social media that there were "obvious and realistic dangers" in the Pacific. That's why the US Air Force deployed 16 aircraft and 450 pilots to train together with allies in the "Shoulder to Shoulder" military exercise, "China only has collaborators, while the US has real partners, which is the biggest difference between the two."

Considering that the Chinese Navy's Shandong aircraft carrier strike group is currently training in the Philippine waters of the Western Pacific, many analysts believe that the preparation for the live-fire target practice exercise in the South China Sea at this time is a provocation against China.

But honestly, neither the intention of the US-Philippine military exercise target practice nor Alvin's boasts have much value worth analyzing — for no other reason than the strong showmanship of the US-Philippine performance.

In 2023, after the "HIMARS" missed its target, Marcos never went to watch the "Shoulder to Shoulder" military exercise again

Taking the target practice segment of the US-Philippine military exercise as an example. Similarly engaging in target practice, in 2023, the US military initially deployed the "HIMARS" rocket launcher to sink the target ship, but all six rockets missed their targets. In the end, humiliated, the US military had to use artillery and fifth-generation fighters (F-35) to finally sink the target ship.

The performance traces of the 2024 military exercise target practice were even more obvious. The US-Australian-Philippine forces participating in the exercise dropped a large number of bombs and missiles on the target ship, but after two hours, the target ship remained "unscathed". It wasn't until the US military allowed it to be sunk that the target ship, which had been heavily bombarded for two hours, finally sank into the sea.

The US Navy press release openly admitted that the goal of the exercise was to "keep the target ship floating on the surface of the water for as long as possible before sinking it." — With this, the US Navy actually had the audacity to boast about the "shoulder-to-shoulder" military exercise conducting "combat-relevant adversarial threat drills."

Marine Corps and US Air Force aircraft involved in the target practice totaled 20

And this year, the US military didn't even deploy fifth-generation fighters, instead using "Fighting Falcons" and "Super Hornets" to attack the target ship. But the total number of aircraft deployed by the Marine Corps and the Air Force added up to just 20 — clearly just fooling the Philippines.

So, rather than listening to the meaningless propaganda of these US-Philippine show performances, we might as well pay more attention to the unmanned anti-ship missile systems deployed by the US Marine Corps in the Bataan Islands in northern Luzon, Philippines. After all, sinking a target ship only provides emotional value for the Philippines, but the US military's unmanned anti-ship missiles have already made it clear that they are intended to interfere with the PLA's military operations in the Taiwan Strait.

Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7497516695033365044/

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