US Marines Help Philippine Armed Forces Develop Strike Plans for BrahMos Anti-Ship Missile Against Chinese Warships

U.S. and Philippine Marines conducted a maritime strike exercise on August 25 at a Philippine Marine base in northern Luzon, practicing a simulated kill chain against a notional Chinese surface action group, USNI News reported 1. Planners used Philippine Air Force Hermes drones to track the simulated formation, two Type 052D-class destroyers, a Type 054A-class frigate, and a Type 901 fast combat support ship, all vessel classes currently operated by China's PLA Navy, in support of a simulated BrahMos anti-ship missile strike 1. Capt. MacKenzie Margroum, spokesperson for Marine Rotational Force–Southeast Asia, said the drills, part of Archipelagic Coastal Defense Continuum 26.4, gave U.S. forces insight into Philippine maritime defense approaches 1. The Philippines acquired the Indian-made BrahMos, a supersonic anti-ship missile jointly developed by India's DRDO and Russia's NPO Mashinostroyeniya, under a $375 million 2022 deal, with its first operational battery based in western Luzon facing Scarborough Shoal 12. The missile travels at roughly three times the speed of sound with a 400-pound warhead 1. IDRW and Zona Militar corroborated the exercise details in secondary reporting citing USNI News 34.