By Shirin Bhandari | 2026-01-13

US and Philippine commanders have inspected a newly opened forward operating base in the Luzon Strait, underscoring closer coordination as Manila strengthens defenses along a strategic corridor between the South China Sea and the western Pacific.

The visit took place last December, when a joint delegation led by Northern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Aristotle Gonzalez and US Air Force Attaché Col. William Herbert surveyed the Mahatao facility on Batan Island. Northern Luzon Command said the allies reviewed terrain and infrastructure for operational and strategic viability to support future interoperable activities, Naval News reported.

The Philippine military inaugurated Mahatao last August. Philippine commanders frame it as a platform for maritime domain awareness and humanitarian assistance and disaster response, with a small, high-readiness security presence expected on the island.

Construction included a dock, a boat launch ramp and helipad space, Naval News, citing analysis of satellite imagery and ground photographs from 2023 through the base's opening, reported. The ramp layout could support small patrol craft and potentially unmanned surface vessels, expanding operating options in the northernmost islands, Naval News added.

A key route for Chinese navy

The site's value is tied to geography. US officials see the Luzon Strait and nearby Bashi Channel as a key route that the Chinese navy could seize if it wants to push into the open Pacific in a crisis, Newsweek reported in December.

China considers Taiwan its territory and has threatened repeatedly to seize it. The Philippines and Taiwan are 112km apart at their closest point.

The waterway is central to China's regional posture, Jaime Ocon, a research fellow with Taiwan Security Monitor, told Naval News. "Closing off this waterway is critical for China's A2/AD [Anti-Access/Area Denial] doctrine," he said.

Meanwhile, the United States and Philippines have used Batanes in major exercises. The US military deployed US Marine Corps Naval Strike Missiles to the province during the Balikatan 2025 drill, highlighting shore-based antiship weaponry that could sink enemy vessels transiting the strait. The Philippine Marine Corps plans to field a BrahMos coastal defense missile battery as part of its northern Luzon posture, Naval News reported in December.

For Manila, the Taiwan scenario carries domestic stakes. Philippine involvement could be difficult to avoid given geography and the presence of Filipino workers in Taiwan, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said.

Preventing Chinese control of Bashi Channel

US forces have pushed troops and antiship missile launchers into the northern Philippines during frequent joint drills, part of an effort to deny Chinese warships the ability to control Bashi Channel in a Taiwan scenario, Reuters reported in October.

A Chinese attack on Taiwan would be far more difficult to stage without Chinese control of the northern Philippines, Gen. (ret.) Emmanuel Bautista, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, told Reuters.

China has warned the Philippines against hosting the Navy/Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) and other US missile systems, calling such deployments "self-inflicted destruction." US forces have used Batanes for NMESIS drills with Philippine counterparts, marking the system's first deployment in the Philippines for a non-live-fire activity, Newsweek reported in December.

"For now, I think it [US-Philippine defense cooperation] directly affects a Taiwan contingency by demonstrating to Beijing that the US has an increasing forward presence, continues to signal that any attack would trigger a wider coalition response, and thereby increases China's political and military uncertainty," Ocon the researcher told Naval News.

Expanded US access will improve intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and correspondingly joint antiship and long-range strike capabilities, he said.