Luzon Strait

They're, they're designed to 15 meters, uh, minimum wave or maximum wave, but, you know, they will survive better.

And what happened is we'd just left Brunei on our way up to Japan, came through the Luzon Strait, which is just after the Philippines, and we could see the signs.

But seeing the signs, you know, this, uh, typhoon was moving very quickly.

I see.

This is straight of Malacca.

But if you look at Taiwan specifically as well, too, if you let's say there was some sort of conflict, Chinese ships would have to go south through the Strait of Luzon or north around the Miyako Strait.

the Ryukyu Islands and so forth.

And it would just make it very easy for other countries to see where their ships are going and potentially hit them or surveil them.

And we can contain that, we can prop up our allies, which we're doing.

You know, if you, if you pull up your map and you zoom into, uh, the South China Sea, there are a bunch of islands out there that stretch north of the Philippines, I mentioned the other day, into the Luzon Strait.

Those are, those are Philippine-controlled territories, and most of them now have, uh, medium and long-range missile batteries from the United States on them, uh, to hurt the Chinese should they engage Taiwan.

China is hoping to get the President of the United States to signal to the Taiwanese that we will not help them, to in some way suggest that Taiwan is on its own so that they give up hope.

The President of the United States, for his part, tries not to antagonize the Chinese dictator, but we have been building up the militaries of the Philippines and South Korea and Japan for the day we need them to help us defend Taiwan and to make it a miserable, costly project.

At the very northern end of the Luzon Strait...

Well, the s- the, the, the, the southern end of Luzon Strait, I should say.

The northern end of the Philippines are a series of islands.

Those islands belong to the Philippines.

At the same time, the United States is also strengthening its forward military posture.

That includes mobile anti-ship missile capabilities with Philippine forces near the Luzon Strait and upgrading the U.S. forces' Japan headquarters.

Those developments matter because geography is everything in a Taiwan conflict, with consequences for Japan to the north and the Philippines to the south.

Taiwan more responsible for defense.

Open-source imagery showed structures already built at the Santa Ana Air Station that appear consistent with preparations for a radar installation, including a structure that could serve as a radome building.

Santa Ana, at the northeastern tip of mainland Luzon facing the Luzon Strait, is strategically positioned to monitor air activity approaching the country's northern airspace.

The development is particularly notable because construction activity has also been observed at the Paranal Air Station in Jose Ponga Niban, Camarines Norte, based on imagery taken as of February 2026.

The two sites could potentially be connected to the PFS radar modernization program, although the intended purpose of the construction at either location has not been officially confirmed.

Open-source imagery showed structures already built at the Santa Ana Air Station that appear consistent with preparations for a radar installation, including a structure that could serve as a radome building.

Santa Ana, at the northeastern tip of mainland Luzon facing the Luzon Strait, is strategically positioned to monitor air activity approaching the country's northern airspace.

The development is particularly notable because construction activity has also been observed at the Paranal Air Station in Jose Ponga Niban, Camarines Norte, based on imagery taken as of February 2026.

Business, Ph.

Precisely.

When you have PLA aircraft and naval vessels constantly operating near Taiwan, the Luzon Strait in Okinawa, they're frequently coming into close contact with forward deployed U.S. units.

Right.

This increases the risk of unsafe intercepts, dangerous maneuvers, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, or ISR tracking.