A ship that US and Philippine forces planned to sink beat them to it.
A former US World War II-era warship, which survived two of the Pacific War’s most important battles, was supposed to go down in a blaze of glory in a live-fire exercise off the western coast of the Philippines as part of annually held joint military drills.
Instead, before the bombs and missiles could fly, it slipped slowly beneath the South China Sea Monday morning, age and the ocean catching up to it before modern weaponry could decimate it.
The ex-USS Brattleboro was to be the main target for the maritime strike (MARSTRIKE) portion of the annual US-Philippine “Balikatan” exercise, which began April 21 and runs to May 9.
“The vessel was selected because it exceeded its service life and was no longer suitable for normal operations,” according to a statement from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
A US Navy spokesperson told USNI News last month that the 81-year-old ship was to be the target for US Marine Corps F/A-18 fighter jets during the exercise. A report from the official Philippine News Agency (PNA) said it was to be hit by US and Philippine forces with a combination of anti-ship missiles, bombs and automatic cannon fire.
But as the 184-foot-long vessel was being towed to its station for the exercise, 35 miles west of Zambales province on the northern Philippine island of Luzon, it took on water, the Philippine military statement said.
“Due to rough sea conditions that we are currently experiencing in the exercise box and with its long service life, as is expected, she took on a significant amount of water and eventually sank,” Philippine Navy spokesperson Capt. John Percie Alcos said, according to PNA. He said the vessel was not damaged while being towed.
The ship sank quietly at 7:20 a.m. local time near the spot where it was to be obliterated later in the day, according to the Philippine military.
Other elements of the MARSTRKE exercise would go on, the military statement said.
The Philippine and US joint task forces “will rehearse virtual and constructive fire missions,” the statement said, without detailing what elements were still scheduled as part of the drill. “The combined force will still achieve its training objectives,” it added.
The Philippine military said there was no environmental danger from the sinking as the vessel had been cleaned before being towed out for the exercise.
A distinguished history
The sinking of the ex-USS Brattleboro was a quiet end for a ship that distinguished itself across decades.
In World War II, it participated in the battles of Leyte Gulf and Okinawa, two key US defeats of Imperial Japanese forces in 1944 and 1945 respectively.
The ship, designated as a submarine chaser, served in a key rescue and air defense role in the Battle of Leyte during the US invasion of the Philippines, according to the US Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).
Over the course of a month, it helped get more than 400 wounded soldiers from shore to larger hospital ships and shot down a Japanese aircraft, according to the NHHC.
After further combat around the island of Palau and later again in the Philippines, Brattleboro got orders to head to Okinawa to support the US invasion there in the spring of 1945.
The invasion of Okinawa commenced on April 1, and “over the next 91 days, the subchaser treated over 200 badly wounded men and rescued in excess of 1,000 survivors of ships that sank,” the NHC history says.
After being retired from US service in the mid-1960s, the ship was transferred to the South Vietnamese military in 1966.
With the fall of Saigon in 1975, the then-South Vietnamese ship was transferred to the Philippines, where it was recommissioned as the Miguel Malvar – a hero of the Philippine revolution – in the Philippine Navy in 1977.
It was decommissioned in 2021.
Heightened tensions
Monday’s ship-sinking exercise was planned in an offshore area facing the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal, which has been closely guarded by the Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships, according to the Associated Press. The Philippines also claims the fishing atoll, which lies about 137 miles west of Zambales.
This year’s Balikatan, called “shoulder-to-shoulder” in Tagalag, involves more than 14,000 Filipino and US troops in exercises designed to be a “full battle test” between the two defense treaty allies in response to regional security concerns.
China and the Philippines have faced increasing clashes in the waters near Scarborough Shoal in recent years, as China exerts its disputed sovereignty over the entirety of the vast South China Sea. And tensions between Beijing and Manila are their worst in years amid concerns of military conflict.
China has vehemently opposed such exercises involving US forces in or near the South China Sea.