Philippines’ Archipelagic Defence Strategy Explained Amid Rising Tensions with China The Philippines sits at the heart of one of the most contested maritime regions on the planet. Comprising 7,641 islands and straddling critical sea lanes linking the South China Sea to the broader Western Pacific, the country’s geography has always been both its greatest asset…
Philippines Set to Receive Historic $1.5B in U.S. Military Assistance The United States is preparing to deliver one of the largest military assistance packages to the Philippines in modern history, authorizing up to $1.5 billion under the FY2026 NDAA, a move that repositions Manila from a peripheral ally to a frontline security pillar in the…
Philippines and Taiwan maritime security cooperation amid Rising Regional Tensions What looked like a low-key technical meeting in Manila between the Philippine Coast Guard and Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration was, in reality, a quiet signal of how frontline states are adapting to a rapidly hardening maritime environment across East Asia. The discussions, focused on intelligence sharing,…
Philippine Air Force Receives New S-70i Black Hawks from Poland Military Modernization Beyond Paper and Budgets. What does military modernization look like when it moves beyond policy documents and budget allocations and begins delivering results in real time? For the Philippine Air Force (PAF), the answer is increasingly visible in modern aircraft taking to the…
Russia and China Deploy Drones and Submarines as the Philippines Faces New Sea Threats War at sea no longer announces itself with fleets on the horizon or cannons over open water. Today’s most consequential maritime weapons often remain invisible, slipping beneath waves, loitering silently for weeks, or operating autonomously without flags, radio calls, or crews….
10 Chinese Ships vs 1 Philippine Vessel How Beijing Turns Aggression Into “Routine Patrols” 10 Chinese Ships vs 1 Philippine Vessel. On paper, Beijing calls it a “routine patrol.” On the water, it looks very different. The overwhelming numerical imbalance is not accidental; it is designed. By surrounding a lone Philippine ship with coast guard…
China Is Watching the 9th U.S.–Philippines Patrol Very Closely! The West Philippine Sea has seen tension before, but nothing quite like this moment. As dawn breaks over contested waters, Philippine and U.S. warships slice through the waves in tight formation, their radars sweeping, their aircraft carving arcs across the sky. It is a scene that…
China Fires Flares at Philippines Aircraft as New EW Systems Activate in Spratlys A Chinese vessel firing military-grade flares at a Philippine patrol plane, just hours after new PLA electronic-warfare systems were activated across the Spratlys, signals a dramatic escalation in the West Philippine Sea. This is not an isolated incident. It is the opening…
A Taiwan Invasion Would Be an Emergency for Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea — Why Prime Minister Takaichi Is Right When Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declared that “a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be an emergency for Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea and Japan will support the United States in the defence of…
China’s Growing Flotilla: Satellite Images Reveal New Flashpoints in the West Philippine Sea In December 2025, new satellite evidence from BBC Verify exposed a dramatic escalation in China’s naval posture across the Philippine Sea, revealing flotillas being resupplied at sea, far from home, and operating with the endurance of a true blue-water navy. What Philippine…
