US army deploys anti-missile launcher in Philippine island

'Combat exercises are crucial to strengthening deterrence against aggression in the Bashi Channel,' says Manila

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The US military has deployed an anti-ship missile launcher for the first time on Batan Island in the Philippines, as Marines unloaded the high-precision weapon on the northern tip of the archipelago, just a sea border away from Taiwan.

US and Philippine forces separately unleashed a barrage of missile and artillery fire that shot down several drones acting as hostile aircraft in live-fire drills on Sunday in Zambales province facing the disputed South China Sea.

About 9,000 American and 5,000 Filipino military personnel took part in the combat maneuvers. At least 260 Australian personnel also joined, with smaller observer delegations from Japan and other countries.

China has fiercely opposed the combat drills as provocative. Its aircraft carrier group sailed by a few days earlier near Batanes, where the US military had deployed the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System on Saturday on Batan near the Bashi Channel just south of Taiwan, a critical trade and military route that the US and Chinese militaries have tried to gain strategic control of.