US special forces ready to expand Philippines drills to deter conflict

Manila,UPDATED: Aug 14, 2026 17:18 IST

American special operations forces are prepared to step up warfighting-readiness exercises with the Philippines and other countries in Asia to strengthen security ties and help deter a major conflict in the region, a senior US military official said in Manila on Thursday.

Adm Frank Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, is in the Philippines after a trip to South Korea and will next travel to Japan for talks with military officials. He is the latest senior American military officer to visit key Asian allies in recent weeks to reassure them of Washington's commitment to the region amid the US preoccupation with the war in Iran.

Bradley's command, which has about 80,000 personnel and is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, carries out some of the US military's most sensitive and dangerous covert operations. The majority of its forces are deployed in more than 80 countries, Bradley said. He said a cohesive alliance of countries that invest in their defence and regularly hold joint combat-readiness drills was the best deterrent to a major conflict. "The best way to deter conflict is by being able to demonstrate convincingly to any adversary who may want to start a conflict that they won't be able to win it," Bradley told The Associated Press in Manila late Thursday. "Where we have strong alliance structures... conflict has not come to it," he said. "Together, we are stronger, and together, we can prevent those conflicts from coming to us."

Bradley said he discussed with Filipino counterparts the Philippine military's continuing modernisation, plans to intensify combat exercises with the US and other allies, and efforts to broaden an arc of security alliances to deter what he described as China's increasingly hostile actions in the South China Sea. China and rival claimants including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been locked in territorial stand-offs in the disputed waters for decades, but confrontations have particularly intensified between Chinese and Philippine forces. Washington has repeatedly warned that it is obliged to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces come under armed attack.

Large-scale combat exercises between US and Filipino forces have in recent years included allies and friendly countries such as Japan, Australia, Canada and France, with a focus on the Philippines' territorial defence in the South China Sea. US Special Forces commandos have taken part in those annual drills as well as smaller warfighting exercises with Filipino counterparts in western Philippine provinces facing the South China Sea and in Batanes, the northernmost island province near Taiwan. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth first disclosed plans for joint US-Philippine special forces operations training in Batanes during a visit to Manila last year, when he said the Trump administration would work with allies to strengthen deterrence against threats around the world, including China's aggression in the South China Sea. Batanes is a group of islands at the northern tip of the Philippine archipelago across a sea border from Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China regards as a province and has threatened to annex by force if necessary.

Bradley did not give details of the joint special operations training and drills, including how many US commandos were involved or what manoeuvres were being carried out, but said the exercises were continuing and could expand. "In the future, how it might scale will be based upon the sovereign needs of the Philippines and where the Philippine government may want us to come and partner, but we will always be committed to be a strong partner," he said, underlining the wider US push to deepen military coordination with the Philippines and other Asian allies.

With PTI Inputs

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