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U.S. Army Lt. Col. Matt Clawson, the commander of Task Force Saber, 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, speaks on his role during the long-range maritime air assault operation as part of Exercise Balikatan 2026 at Cagayan North International Airport, Lal-lo, Philippines, April 27, 2026. Balikatan is a longstanding annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and U.S. military that represents the strength of our alliance, improves our capable combined force, and demonstrates our commitment to regional peace and prosperity. (U.S. Army video by Sgt. Olivia Cowart)
Transcript:
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Hi, my name is Lieutenant Colonel Matt Clawson. I'm the commander for Task Force Saber.
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The mission of Balikatan is that it is the largest multinational exercise here in the Philippines, where we work with our Philippine partners to ensure that we are strengthening each other's military, ensuring that our technological upgrades are compatible, and we conduct exercises together to ensure that fact.
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Task Force Sabers role is to provide the full spectrum of army aviation operations to the ground force commanders, or the Joint Land component commanders.
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Okay. Task Force Saber provides a unique opportunity for the ground force commander or the joint land component commander to project military power or combat power across the island chain here in the Pacific. Task Force Saber provides that unique ability for the Joint Land Component Commander by utilizing its helicopters, such as a UH-60 (Black Hawk), CH-47 (Chinook), AH-64 (Apache), MQ-1C (Gray Eagle), in order to enable the Ground Force Commander through
00;00;56;03 - 00;01;06;20
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air-ground operations. We do that by moving people, equipment and cargo over extended distances in order to support their ground tactical plan.
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Our partner forces, or the Philippine military, has invited us here to execute these operations such as Balikatan with them in order to promote the free and open Indo-Pacific. Through that they have been part of every mission plan, rehearsal and execution and support with the ground tactical commander.
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Through the invitation with their military, they have been able to provide unique insights about the terrain and civil considerations that we are just not privy to, or understanding. They have also been part of every rehearsal, briefing, and execution in support of the ground force commander all the way across the island chain.
00;01;44;20 - 00;02;03;21
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Some no-fail tasks that task force saber had a plan for was robust contingency planning, such as overwater recovery operations, communications in depth, and the ability to maintain and do the maintenance and fueling operations to support this operation at extended distances.
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We adapt to the environment that we find ourselves here through robust mission planning with deep focus on contingencies. Some of those contingencies are how do we execute extended distances with limited comms structure in such a way that if the communication node, or our Pace plan fails, we have the ability for our pilots to make on the spot calls and decisions that enable the overall operation to continue.
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Other considerations we have to work through are such as our maintenance posture, our fuel considerations, and the ability to integrate all assets at a decisive point.
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Some challenges we have learned about executing air assaults in a foreign country, such as the Philippines, is we don't have the unique understanding of the terrain we find ourselves in. This is their home. Additionally, unlike the United States or even a Oahu, the distance that we are flying over water is greatly expanded upon. Lastly, the maintenance and fuel has been a little bit challenging since we're so far away and west at the International Date Line.
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Task Force Saber is currently modernizing its helicopter fleet through mounting of external fuel tanks like you see behind me.
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Additionally, we've been installing new equipment on our Blackhawks in order to enable us to have greater mission command nodes or even Wi-Fi in the aircraft to enable the ground force commander to see the battlefield before they arrive.
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They have absolutely adapted and risen to the challenge whether it be the pilots, the crew chiefs, the fuelers or the staff themselves. The ability to plan, rehearse and execute this mission day or night.
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Incredibly humbling. The ability for the collective team to come together, both U.S and Filipino. The ability for us to plan, rehearse and execute such a long duration operation with multiple helicopters converging at the decisive point all at once in order to enable another aircraft carrying a HIMARS within minutes has been phenomenal.
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The Philippine Army had provided us the land that we stand on, the airfield we stand on, the ability for us to train in their home, the ability for us to use and coordinate the use of fuel and other lubricants to help us keep our fleet operational.
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Lastly, they provided a lot of unique insight and enabled us to execute this operation. About the civil considerations, the terrain and are experts of an island chain because this is their home.
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I've been most proud of the collective outputs of the Task Force Saber team. They have come together from across the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade. We have trained together for the last year. We have built up to this point both in readiness and operational execution, and we proved it the other day by executing the longest air assault operation to date.
| Date Taken: | 04.27.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.06.2026 22:36 |
| Category: | Interviews |
| Video ID: | 1005890 |
| VIRIN: | 260427-A-XD912-1373 |
| Filename: | DOD_111685804 |
| Length: | 00:04:59 |
| Location: | PH |
| Downloads: | 1 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 1 |
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