United States bomber aircraft joined two Philippine fighter jet in an air patrol and training over Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday.

This joint air patrol of the Philippine and United States air forces was condemned by the Southern Theater Air Force of China noting that it "deliberately undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea"

"On February 4, the PLA Southern Theater Air Force conducted a routine patrol in the airspace of Huangyan Island. During the patrol, the Philippines solicited countries outside the region to organize a so-called "joint patrol" to deliberately undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea," the spokesperson of the Southern Theater Air Force said in a statement.

"The theater air force continues to maintain a high level of alert, resolutely defending the country's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and any military activities that disrupt the South China Sea are under control," it added.

In an interview in Camp Aguinaldo, Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo, Philippine Air Force public affairs chief emphasized that the joint training and air patrol between the two forces, "is a crucial step in enhancing our interoperability, improving air domain awareness and agile combat employment and supporting our shared bilateral air objectives."

Castillo said two Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jets and two US B-1 aircraft rendezvous off the West Coast of the Philippines and conduct bilateral air patrols, air intercept training, and photo exercises "in the designated Intensive Military Training Area (IMTA) in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal" within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone on Tuesday afternoon.

"It will be within Bajo de Masinloc will be within the general area because if this is Bajo de Masinloc they will be flying in the West Philippine Sea within the IMTA, intensive military training area. So from our mainland they will do a rendezvous because the bomber aircraft won't be landing here in the Philippines," she explained.

"They will be coming from a different place and then they're going to rendezvous somewhere here in the Philippines, West Philippines and then they're going to fly within the IMTA and within that is Bajo de Masinloc which is part of our territory," she added.

Castillo said the two air forces will train how to respond or intercept aircraft illegally entering the country's territorial air space.

"It's like simulating an air intercept. Like if there's an aircraft coming into your territory, how you intercept it, that's a good exercise for our fighter aircraft," she said.

It can be recalled that in previous year, Chinese jets fired flares in the part of a Philippine Air Force plane conducting air patrols in Scarborough Shoal. Robina Asido/DMS