US Give Philippines Eyes On The South China Sea
Conflicting claims over territorial limits in the South China Sea
The United States will transfer an observation blimp to the Philippines to help it track maritime activity and guard its borders amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, a US diplomat said recently.
Philip Goldberg, US ambassador to the Philippines, said Washington would give Manila, its oldest Asia-Pacific security ally, $42 million worth of sensors, radar and communications equipment.
"We will add to its capability to put sensors on ships and put an aerostat blimp in the air to see into the maritime space," Goldberg said in an interview with CNN.
The blimp is a balloon-borne radar to collect information and detect movements in the South China Sea, a Philippine military official said.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited the Philippines recently to reaffirm Washington's "ironclad" commitment to defend Manila under a 1951 security treaty.
China has been expanding its presence on its seven artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago and recently landed a military plane for the first time on one of them, Fiery Cross Reef. It comes ahead of a planned US freedom of navigation patrol this month near the Spratlys.
Carter's visit also signals the start of US military deployment in the Philippines, with 75 soldiers to be rotated in and out of an air base north of Manila.
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