Indian-origin BrahMos missiles in the arsenal of the Philippines military will be part of a multinational maritime exercise that will practice targeting “enemy warships” at sea.Called Exercise Balikatan 2026, it kicked off yesterday and brings together more than 14,000 personnel and warships from the Philippines, the United States, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.Maritime strike drills are scheduled to be conducted near Taiwan, while live-fire exercises will be held close to the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed area in the South China Sea. The exercise features the US Typhon missile system and Philippine-operated BrahMos cruise missiles.The Philippines’ BrahMos anti-ship missile system will be used for a simulated firing as part of a joint maritime strike exercise.“The BrahMos of the Coastal Defence Regiment of the Philippine Marines will participate in Balikatan, but it will be only in a constructive environment. It will only involve simulation firing during the joint maritime strike in Northern Luzon,” Philippine Balikatan exercise director Maj Gen Francisco Lorenzo said in a press briefing on Monday.Simulation firing refers to a training scenario in which all sensors and fire-control systems of the platforms are activated as if in an actual combat situation, but no weapons are launched.India delivered the first BrahMos batteries to the Philippines in April 2024. A battery usually consists of three to six launchers along with monitoring, tracking components, and logistics support vehicles.Capable of coastal defence, ground attack, and anti-ship roles, BrahMos is the world’s only supersonic cruise missile, flying at nearly three times the speed of sound. It is a product of a joint venture between India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, established in 1998.India supplied the land-launched version of the missile to the Philippines, one of the countries involved in maritime territorial disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea.Separately, India and Indonesia have entered an agreement to allow the sale of the BrahMos missile system to the country, which also lies along the South China Sea rim.Czechia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom will participate as international observers in Exercise Balikatan, further strengthening multinational collaboration.