600 US Marines to Arrive in Philippines for 'Talon Vision 02' Exercises

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, September 19, 2002

600 US Marines to Arrive in Philippines for 'Talon Vision 02' Exercises

Some 600 US marines will arrive in Clark, the former US military air base in the Philippines, early next month to participate in another joint military exercises on Oct. 11 to 26.

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Some 600 US marines will arrive in Clark, the former US military air base in the Philippines, early next month to participate in another joint military exercises on Oct. 11 to 26.

The forthcoming military exercises dubbed "Talon Vision 02" are slated to be conducted in Clark, Crow Valley gunnery range in Tarlac, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija and Tarnate in Cavite, all in central Luzon, the largest island in the northern Philippines.

A total of 15 US military personnel conferred with l5 top officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Clark on Tuesday and finalized the details on the joint military exercises, the Philippine News Agency reported Thursday.

Major Allan Ballesteros, spokesman of the Clark-based 600th Air Base Wing of the Philippines Air Force, said that the joint Philippine-US military exercises would involve Air Force and the Army from the Philippine side and US Marines on the US side.

Ballesteros said this is the second time that they would be holding the Talon Vision exercises which were also held last year in Clark Zone and other areas in central Luzon.

He said that the US side would be bringing in military aircraft such as Ch-53 helicopters, AH-1H Cobra Attack helicopters and the state-of-the-art F-18 Fighter Bomber jets.

At least 400 AFP personnel would join their US counterparts in the Talon Vision exercise at Clark with aircraft such as UH-1H Huey helicopters; MG-520 helicopters and CV-10 Bronco Bomber planes.

The spokesman said that aside from lecture training courses, war games would be held at Crow Valley and Port Magsaysay where Philippine Army soldiers would be trained by US Special Forces.

Ballesteros claimed that anti-terrorism training will not be included in the Talon Vision exercises, saying "The exercises would mainly involve inter-operability of the air force aviation and safety ground trainings. A combined joint exercises trainings would take place."

The Philippine and US military have conducted a series of joint exercises early this year, including the six-month anti-terrorism exercises in the southern Philippines.

An Air Force officer has disclosed that a bigger military exercise would be conducted in central Luzon next year where in a bigger number of US forces would participate.

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