I'm not really into my country's stuff but this, this is something I'm very interested in. Philippines has one of the weakest military, in terms of equipment, in Asia. Especially mentioning that we don't have tanks, modern fighter jets and modern destroyers. Well, we were able to purchase 2 refurbished ships from the U.S. but that's not enough to leave the rank as one of the weakest militaries. And so I will categorize them in this order: Air, Sea and Land.
But before we proceed, let me explain what the Modernization has to offer or what it really according to what I have understood. The First Horizon budget was P90.86 Billion ($2,029,008,162.03| RATE: 1 USD=44.78 PHP). Now for the Second Horizon, they are targeting for P600 Billion ($13,398,689,161.53). That's huge, well for our country that is. It would be much better if they used the money from a certain "barrel" to add up for a bigger budget. With that, let us proceed with the real stuff.
Air
The PH does not have any modern fighter jets, only those WWII planes given by the US. But what we do have are 3 C-130 Heavy Transport Aircrafts (no, not the AC-130 with guns on it), 53 Bell UH-1 Iroquois (also known as Huey) and 12-16 MD 500 Defenders (the MD 500 was actually displayed in Mall of Asia).
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| C-130, UH-1 and the MD 500 respectively. |
With the Modernization Program, in the next few years or so, we will be receiving new aircrafts like:
- 12 FA-50 Fighters
- 2 More S-211s
- 21 more UH-1s (currently bidding)
- 8 AW109 Attack Helicopters
- 5 Bell 412 Combat Utility Helicopters
NEWS:
As of March 20, 2015, PH is planning again to buy 24 more combat aircrafts from South Korea, adding to the 12 FA-50 Fighters they ordered from them.
Water
Now we move on to the Navy. Philippine Navy currently only owns 2 Modern Frigates and 3 Modern Corvettes. These are the:
*Note that BRP means Barko ng Republika ng Pilipnas (Ship of the Philippine Republic)
Light Frigates
- BRP Gregorio del Pilar (name ship)
- BRP Ramon Alcaraz
Corvettes
Not much news compared to the Air Section.
NEWS:
From June 2014: Seoul is decommisioning their guided missile corvette, the Pohang-class.
and donating it/some (not sure about the amount) to the Philippine Navy as a "small token" compared witht he Filipinos' sacrifice in the Korean War. SoKor Navy currently has 21 of them.
LAND
To be honest, I don't have anything here. Only this:
Reconnaissance Vehicle
Yep, that's all I got for the Land Section. Oh, this thing? It's actually in Armored Warfare!
Sources:
- New buzz words, targets: P600B for AFP modernization
- Air Force opens bid for 21 Hueys
- JV Ejercito seeks probe into DND's P.12-B chopper deal
- Air Force gets 8 new attack helicopters
- PH acquires P23.7B-worth of fighter jets, helicopters
- Phl to buy 24 more combat aircraft from South Korea
- Meet South Korea's guided missile warship for Philippines
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