FORT MAGSAYSAY, Philippines — U.S. Army Soldiers with the Division Sustainment Brigade (DSB), 25th Infantry Division prepare for Exercise Salaknib 2025 by testing and preparing their water purification system for upcoming training.

Salaknib 2025 is an annual exercise between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the U.S. Military designed to strengthen bilateral interoperability, capabilities, trust, and cooperation built over decades of shared experiences.

Service members with the DSB performed a Tactical Water Purification Systems operation at Fort Magsaysay, Philippines, March 17, 2025. The TWPS is designed to provide potable water to the service members in a field environment by eliminating decontamination and filtering it through a series of tests, allowing the water to be efficiently resourced from the training location.

“Right now, we’re using the local water source on Fort Magsaysay for our daily activities”, said U.S. Army Sgt. Mario Lumpkin, a Water Treatment Specialist and the Noncommissioned Officer in Charge of the TWPS Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE). “The intent is to filter the local water source using U.S. Army equipment, making it safe for daily use as we train alongside our allies.”

The TWPS operation was performed in preparation of Exercise Salaknib 2025 at Fort Magsaysay, where Lumpkin will spearhead a SMEE, allowing both the U.S. and Philippine armies to exchange techniques of water purification systems and acquire skills from one another.

“Since I am the Water Treatment SMEE, I will be engaging with the Philippine Army in a classroom setting first”, said Lumpkin. “Once we have an understanding of the schematics, we will transition to the practical side of things, where I’ll demonstrate how our equipment operates and what is expected from the water source that is produced.”