The drills also come as Beijing ramps up military pressure around Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said last November that given his country’s proximity to the self-ruled island and its surrounding waters, “a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming, into the conflict”.
In February, US, Japanese and Philippine aircraft patrolled over the Bashi Channel separating the Philippines from Taiwan to test what Manila called their “ability to operate seamlessly together in complex maritime environments”.
Marcos considers Manila’s 1951 mutual defence pact with Washington a bedrock of national security and has been building up security ties with Western nations to deter China.
Over the past two years, Manila has signed visiting forces or equivalent agreements with Japan, New Zealand, Canada and France, deals aimed at facilitating their participation in joint military exercises in the Philippines.
Bunn said American forces would have the option of firing Tomahawk and NMESIS anti-ship missiles, without confirming they would.
Integrated air and missile defence systems will also be put to the test, including technology for countering drones, Philippine spokesman Hernandez said.
Week-long naval exercises will also take place in so far unspecified waters off the main Philippine island of Luzon, he added.
Japan is deploying a tank landing ship, a destroyer, and a helicopter destroyer, while the US will use a cutter and a dock landing ship.
They will join two Philippine frigates and another from Canada.