USS Fort Worth.
The Philippines and the US will again conduct a naval exercise.
Among the ships involved will be the US latest ship USS Fort Worth. Fort Wort is a new US Navy ship. It has an embarked helicopter capable of anti-submarine warfare. It has also a giant drone for surveillance purposes and one small armed helicopter operated remotely. This small helicopter is capable of firing rockets against potential targets.
One of USS Fort Worth mission is to monitor what’s happening in the West Philippine sea.
US Navy Cmdr. Michael Jarret Jr., the commanding officer of the USS Fort Worth said that they saw a lot of different navy operating in the area like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
USS Fort Worth is said to be a littoral combat ship capable of operating in shallow water and well suited to operate in those kinds of environments. USS Fort Worth is very fast, it is said that it can travel at 40 knots per hour.
The USS Forth Worth is in Palawan, Philippines to participate in the yearly CARAT exercise between the US and the Philippines.
The CARAT is a naval exercise conducted yearly between the US and the Philippines intended to strengthen the cooperation between the navies of both countries specially in cases of natural disaster and calamities.
Rear Admiral Leopoldo Alano, the Philippine Fleet commander said that the Philippine Navy will have a gunnery exercise to test the proficiency of the Philippine Del Pilar navy ships both surface and air targets.
In other parts of Palawan, the Philippine Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force are also conducting naval exercises.
Rommel Banlaoi, a security analyst said that the risk of conflict in the area became huge because the military, para-military and civilian activities in the area went up.
He further said that if you involved a major power in the area, you also increase the risk of major power rivalry.
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