A US Marine Reaper drone unit is now flying from Palawan, much closer to Second Thomas Shoal

A US Marine Corps drone detachment is operating from Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa, on the Philippine island of Palawan, putting American MQ-9A Reaper drones within easy reach of the disputed Spratly Islands, USNI News reported on Wednesday 28 October. The report cited a logistics document showing that Marine Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Squadron 1, known as VMU-1, is working from the Philippine Air Force base. Taiwan's Liberty Times and Newtalk carried the report on Thursday.

USNI News said an expeditionary hangar had recently appeared at the base in commercial satellite imagery, and that it was the same make as a hangar VMU-1 already uses at Basa Air Base on Luzon. The Marine Corps acknowledged questions about the Palawan detachment but did not provide information, according to the outlet, which said it had first asked about the deployment in September.

Shorter flights, longer watch

From Puerto Princesa, the unarmed Reapers can fly missions to maritime features more than 300 miles away, and their sensors can follow Chinese forces operating off the Philippines, including those on China's artificial island bases, USNI News reported. Ben Lewis, the founder of the monitoring group PLA Tracker, told the outlet that launching from Palawan rather than Basa cuts the transit to Second Thomas Shoal from more than 400 nautical miles to under 200. He said that gives each sortie nearly three extra hours over the area.

Lewis also said a second site outside Luzon gives the drones a base that is less exposed to typhoon disruption, and that a steadier picture of ship movements would give Manila and Washington earlier warning and firmer evidence when incidents flare. The Liberty Times summarised the move as roughly halving the flight to the shoal.

The air base sits beside the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command, which runs Philippine operations in the Spratlys, including resupply missions to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal. VMU-1 Reapers began deploying to the Philippines in 2024 after Manila asked for help gathering intelligence in the South China Sea, according to USNI News.

An EDCA site near the Spratlys

Antonio Bautista Air Base was one of the five original sites opened to US forces under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows rotational deployments, pre-positioned equipment and new facilities but not a permanent US presence. In 2023 President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said four additional sites would be spread across the country, including around Palawan, as Rappler reported from a Reuters dispatch at the time. The agreement now covers nine locations.

The detachment arrives during a tense month at sea. Newtalk counted at least six China-Philippines incidents in disputed waters in October, including an 8 October episode in which a China Coast Guard ship used a water cannon to turn back a Philippine Coast Guard mission evacuating a sick soldier from the Sierra Madre, delaying the transfer by about ten hours. A routine resupply of the outpost was completed on 21 October.

Ryan Claffey, a research assistant in the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told USNI News that US Coast Guard cutters rotating through Subic Bay in September and the Marine detachment on Palawan signal US backing for Manila in the South China Sea. He suggested the details may be kept quiet to avoid friction before meetings with China such as APEC and the G20, and said he expects more intelligence sharing, joint patrols and long-range missile deployments to the Philippines.

What to watch

Neither Washington nor Manila has publicly announced the Palawan detachment. Whether either government confirms it, and whether Reaper imagery begins to appear in Philippine accounts of future encounters at Second Thomas Shoal, will show how far the new site changes surveillance of Chinese activity in the waters south of the Taiwan Strait.