Decommissioned WW2 corvette to be sunk during 'Balikatan' 2025
Philippine News Agency
By Priam Nepomuceno
April 21, 2025, 9:18 pm
MANILA -- The decommissioned World War II corvette, BRP Miguel Malvar (PS-19), will be targeted and sunk in this year's "Balikatan" exercise.
In a information kit provided to reporters Monday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the decommissioned Navy ship will be the target of the "MARSTRIKE" (Maritime Strike) event of the annual military exercise between Filipino and US forces.
The former BRP Miguel Malvar was originally the USS Brattleboro (PCER-852), a rescue patrol craft formerly in service with the US Navy that was transferred to the Philippines in 1976.
Prior to its transfer to the Philippine Navy (PN), the ship was serving the then Republic of Vietnam Navy, having been transferred there in 1966.
The old naval vessel will be sunk by FIlipino and American assets deployed during the event, according to Balikatan assistant exercise director and spokesperson Brig. Gen. Michael Logico.
Possible assets that will be used to sink the World War II corvette are the Philippine Air Force's FA-50PH fighter jets and the US military's F-16s and F-35s, and possibly the F-18s, he added.
Other assets that will be utilized for this event are PN ships equipped with the LIG Nex 1 C-Star sea skimming surface-to-surface anti-ship cruise missile system.
The MARSTRIKE will be held on May 5 off the Naval Education Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales province.
In May 8, 2024, the missile frigate BRP Jose Rizal fired and sank the ex-PN tanker BRP Lake Caliraya using its C-Star anti-ship cruise missile system off Laoag City, Ilocos Norte province during last year's "Balikatan" exercise. (PNA)
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