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Multiple U.S. military facilities were last seen near Subic Bay during Exercise Balikatan, a multilateral maritime event in 2025.
Claim: Video shows multiple US Army warships and troops arriving in Subic Bay, Philippines.
Rating: False
Why we fact-checked this: A YouTube post containing this claim has received over 52,182 views and 261 likes at the time of writing.
The post, dated Jan. 16, is titled “U.S. Navy troops arrive: Warships found in Subic Bay, Philippines remain stunned.”
The video included several clips, including footage of U.S. soldiers on a warship, soldiers on a hovercraft, and footage of U.S. soldiers arriving on shore.
Although the post’s description includes a disclaimer that the video was generated by AI, most of the YouTube accounts that commented on the video are confident that it is real. The video poster also failed to reiterate this AI disclaimer in a reply to a comment thanking the US government for allegedly sending troops to the Philippines.
fact: The clips shown in the video are generated by AI.
The AI video detector Hive Moderation flagged the video as 99.9% likely generated by AI. Detection tool Undetectable AI found this video to be “likely AI-generated” with 96% confidence.
Military activities: According to a Facebook post by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the AFP and the US Navy conducted a bilateral maritime cooperation activity (MCA) in Bajo de Masinloc from January 25 to 26, 2026. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command dispatched the U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG 113) and an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter. MCA.
The USS John Finn also participated in MCA, which was held in Subic Bay from September 11 to 13, 2025.
The Multilateral Maritime Event (MME) of Exercise Balikatan 2025, conducted from April 24 to 29, 2025, was the most recent time multiple U.S. warships were in the vicinity of Subic Bay. The U.S. Navy’s USS Savannah (LCS-28) and USS Comstock (LSD-45) participated in the 2025 MME, along with major naval and air assets from the Philippines and Japan. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com
Lorenz Pasion is a Rappler contributor. This fact check was reviewed by members of Rappler’s research team and senior editors.
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