Atlantic Ocean warship test falsely shared as 'US forces attacking China off Philippine coast'

"AMERICA ATTACKED CHINA IN THE WEST PHILIPPINE SEA," reads part of the Tagalog-language title of a video shared on YouTube on December 28, 2022.

Manila refers to waters immediately to its west as the West Philippine Sea.

The video features clips of an explosion that causes a gigantic burst of water to shoot from the ocean.

The video, which has been viewed over 180,000 times, was posted weeks after US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the western island of Palawan, the closest Philippine landmass to the Spratly archipelago in the hotly contested South China Sea.

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire sea and has ignored an international court ruling that its claims have no legal basis.

Hundreds of Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels prowl the waters, swarming reefs, harassing and attacking fishing and other boats, and interfering in oil and gas exploration as well as scientific research.

Since Harris' visit, Manila and Washington announced their largest ever joint military exercises, agreed to restart joint patrols in the South China Sea and struck a deal to give US troops access to another four military bases in the Southeast Asian country.

The countries have been seeking to repair ties that were fractured under President Ferdinand Marcos's predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.

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Screenshot of the false post taken on March 16, 2023

The video has also been shared with the false claim on Facebook here and here.

Comments suggest people believed the claim, despite there being no evidence as of March 21, 2023 that a Chinese ship had been attacked by US forces.

"It's just right to destroy EVERYONE who dares to enter OUR territory thank you AMERICA," one user wrote.

"China deserves that, they should respect the sovereignty of the Philippines," another commented.

The footage was in fact filmed in the Atlantic Ocean and shows the US Navy testing the readiness of one of its warships.

Aircraft carrier shock trials

The clips used in the false video are both available on The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) website here and here.

DVIDS is owned by the US Department of Defense.

According to the clips' descriptions on DVIDS, they were filmed during "Full Ship Shock Trials" for the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which happened in the Atlantic Ocean on June 18, 2021.

The descriptions add: "The U.S. Navy conducts shock trials of new ship designs using live explosives to confirm that our warships can continue to meet demanding mission requirements under harsh conditions they might encounter in battle."

In the false posts, the clips have been horizontally flipped.

Below are screenshot comparisons of the clips in the false posts (left) and the corresponding frames from the DVIDS clips (right), with the DVIDS videos flipped horizontally:

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Screenshot comparisons of the clips in the false posts (left) and the corresponding frames from the DVIDS clips (right)

The US Navy published similar clips in a thread about the shock trials on its official Twitter account on June 20, 2021, including one clip that shows the explosion happened near to the USS Gerald R. Ford.

AFP also published a video about the trials here on June 21, 2021.

According to an AFP report, the powerful explosion was part of a series of tests to determine the USS Gerald R. Ford's war readiness.

The test, which occurred in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast, registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.

Multiple local news organisations, including GMA News, Inquirer.net and The Manila Times, also used clips of the explosion in reports about the trials.