US gives Philippines P754-M sea drones amid China presence at sea

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June 23, 2026 | 3:53pm

MANILA, Philippines — The United States turned over four autonomous sea drones to the Philippine Navy on Monday, June 22.

The four Ocean Aero Triton autonomous underwater and surface vehicles were transferred at Naval Operating Base Subic in Zambales, a province that sits roughly 200 kilometers from Scarborough Shoal.

The delivery was a P754-million ($13 million) package meant to track illegal fishing and other threats across waters where China has recently been more active in pressing its claims. 

Each Triton runs on solar power, stays at sea for up to 30 days, and collects data from above and below the waterline, feeding it across what the embassy called a resilient mesh network. 

U.S. Embassy Chargé d'Affaires ad interim Bridgette Walker described the drones as a way to stretch the Philippine Navy's reach.

"The Indo-Pacific's maritime domain is vast, contested, and critical, and the Philippines sits at the heart of it," Walker said. Tracking illegal fishing, gray zone activities and threats to freedom of navigation, she said, demands "persistent, long-endurance awareness that no single ship or aircraft can provide alone."

"The Triton fills that gap by expanding the capabilities of the Philippine Navy into critical waterways," she added.

Col. Daniel Oh, the US embassy's senior defense official and chief of the Joint US Military Assistance Group-Philippines, said the drones "support the AFP’s transition to territorial defense and improve awareness in critical waterways."

"The next step is to assist the Philippines [in integrating] these new capabilities in their employment and sustainment concepts," he added.

Monitoring Chinese presence. The drones arrived as Manila grows increasingly alarmed about Chinese moves at Scarborough Shoal, which sits inside the Philippines' exclusive economic zone and which China has held under effective control since a tense 2012 standoff.

This month, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) tracked a Chinese-deployed floating platform — a roughly six-by-six-meter structure fitted with an antenna — inside the shoal. Three weeks after it was first sighted, the PCG confirmed its removal. The Chinese embassy said the platform was sent there to study the shoal's ecosystem and was removed after the "research mission" was "successfully completed."

Days later, authorities spotted a Chinese research vessel, the Tong Ji, operating near the shoal, with China Coast Guard ships and maritime militia vessels back in the area.