(MusinessMirror) FOR the first time in their 38-year history, Filipino and American forces participating in this year’s “Balikatan” (literally means shoulder-to-shoulder) exercise will be using all their available weapons to bombard and sink a decommissioned World War II-era corvette this coming April 26.

This was confirmed by Col. Michael Logico, Executive Agent of Balikatan 2023 Philippines, shortly after the opening ceremonies of the annual Philippines and US military exercise held at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, on Monday April 11, 2023.

Logico said the decision to undertake a “sinking exercise,” also known as “Sinkex” in military parlance, was done in line with the goal of “doing something different” every year.

“Every year, we have to do something different, so in the previous Balikatans we would [undertake] exercises [with] the Army and the Air Force through a live-fire: what we [had] never done before is to exercise all three components, Army, Navy, Air Force. We cannot [hold the] exercise [for] the Navy in Crow Valley [in Tarlac] or Fort Magsaysay [in Nueva Ecija] because [both provinces are] landlocked area[s] so we really have to go to the littoral areas,” he added.