A South Korean HHI HDF-3000 frigate which carries missiles and torpedos, The Philippines is buying two. (Photo courtesy rhk111's Military and Arms Page)
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The Philippine Navy’s (PN’s) recent interest in acquiring submarines from Russia (Kilos) or maybe China (S20s or S26s) should not be seen as a passing urge from a mere gun only second hand navy. Any future submarine purchase can be seen in the context of the PN’s new trend of paying serious money for new vessels armed with missiles.
In the last few years the PN has bought:
A. 3 x multi-purpose attack craft (MPAC) Mk. 3s, These patrol boats (coming from Israel around June 2017) are being armed with Spike-ERmissiles with a 8 km range. The Spikes have roughly the weight and range of Hellfire missiles.
B. much more substantially a contract (for a total of US$337 million) was concluded October 24, 2016 for 2 new frigates,which are derivatives of the HDF-3000 design. These are being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, South Korea and are scheduled for delivery starting 2019. These frigates will carry (see and wiki's right sidebar) SAMs, Harpoon like SSM-700K Haeseong anti-ship missiles and lightweight torpedos.
C. The PN will also mount Spike-NLOS missiles on its soon to be received AW-159 Wildcat naval helicopters. Also LWTs can be mounted. These helicopters could operate from:
- the 3 old cutter-frigates
- the 2 new build frigates,
- the new 11,583 ton, Tarlac class landing platform docks (LPDs) - see the photo below, or
- air bases in critical places like Palawan Island which borders the highly contested Spratly Islands in
the South China Sea.
The Philippine Navy's new 11,583 ton Tarlac class LPDs can carry helicopters armed with missiles and LWTs. (Photo courtesy Miguel de Guzman via philstar GLOBAL).
Pete