28 August 2025
The thump and smoke from simulated naval gunfire heralded the start of the amphibious assault.
A pair of Australian EA-18G Growlers turned in fast for a low pass before banking out over the West Philippines Sea.
Engineers from the Philippine Marine Corps waded ashore to breach an obstacle by hand, allowing amphibious troops from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR), and the Philippines 11th Marine Landing Battalion to alight from small boats. They manoeuvred through low grass and coconut trees to clear an opposition force machinegun position.
Rifle and machinegun fire echoed across the assault area, with the troops engulfed in red, yellow and purple smoke.
Philippines marines stormed a small building to silence the last of the opposition force, the demonstration now complete.
At San Vicente on the island of Palawan in the southern Philippines, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) conducted a combined pre-landing operation and joint force entry operation as part of Exercise Alon 25 – a bilateral training activity planned and led by the AFP and the ADF.
While demonstrating the strength of the strategic partnership between Australia and the Philippines, Exercise Alon 25 has allowed both nations to practise multi-domain warfighting skillsets while collaborating on regional security.
Coming ashore in Zodiac small boats, 2RAR formed the nucleus of the joint pre-landing force that carried out the amphibious assault.
'We’ve demonstrated that we can force project meaningful combat forces into the region to work alongside a key partner.'
“Small boats offer us a clandestine method to insert reconnaissance assets into the objective area,” Officer Commanding 2RAR’s Alpha Company Major Thomas Grawich said.
“Typically, we would deploy ahead of the force at night; our primary objective to shape the avenue of the approach for the amphibious forces that flows on afterwards.
“Exercise Alon 25 has been significant for us. By working with the Philippines Marines Corps these past few weeks, we have been able to test our interoperability and demonstrate we are ready, lethal and can fight against any adversary in this region.”
During 2RAR’s deployment to the Philippines on Exercise Alon 25, the battalion has conducted force integration training with the Philippine Marines Corps – exchanging skills and knowledge and developing interoperability at both the tactical and operational level.
For Commanding Officer 2RAR Lieutenant Colonel Luke Holloway, the success of both the force integrated training and the execution of the combined joint force entry operation at San Vicente reflected success at the strategic level.
“The Armed Forces of the Philippines is one of the Australian Defence Force’s key partners within the region. What we are seeing on Exercise Alon 25 is a long and enduring partnership,” Lieutenant Colonel Luke Holloway said.
“We’ve demonstrated that we can force project meaningful combat forces into the region to work alongside a key partner. Importantly, it helps to enable regional security and deter any adverse actors within the region.”
More than 3600 personnel are participating in Exercise Alon 25, which includes members of the ADF and AFP, as well as elements of the Royal Canadian Navy and the United States Marine Corps' Marine Rotation Force – Darwin.
Conducted from August 15-19, Exercise Alon is Australia’s largest overseas military exercise in 2025.
