Philippine Naval Modernization Under Duterte in the Spotlight with Anniversary Celebrations

A modern occasion furnished a closer glimpse at what lies in advance for Manila’s maritime capabilities.

On June 17, the Philippine navy held one more iteration of celebrations tied to its annual founding anniversary. The engagement as soon as once more highlighted the mix of alternatives and challenges that continue being for the Philippines’ naval modernization under President Rodrigo Duterte.

As I have pointed out before in these web pages, as Philippine armed service modernization continues underneath Duterte, with a blend of continuity and change and amid a array of developments and developments, observers have been hunting to get a perception of how the Philippines, which remains a single of the weakest militaries in the Asia-Pacific, is seeking to even further raise its abilities and tackle a spectrum of maritime worries.

This week, the state of Philippine naval modernization was in the headlines once more with the commemoration of the Philippine navy’s 121st founding anniversary. When the backdrop to the anniversary celebrations, held in Sangley Point in Cavite, had been significantly from excellent supplied that the Philippines was continue to contending from the fallout from a collision by a Chinese ship that remaining 22 Philippine fishermen at sea, the event, which was attended by top rated Philippine officials like Duterte himself, was nevertheless notable and carefully viewed.

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While the anniversary itself comprised quite a few factors, amongst them was the target on new developments in Philippine naval modernization that came from Philippine navy chief Robert Empedrad. In his remarks, Empedrad reiterated that the acquisition of quite a few naval belongings was in the pipeline in line with ongoing modernization endeavours and priority locations for Manila’s protection coverage likely ahead for the relaxation of Duterte’s one 6-calendar year phrase.

Some of these have been updates with respect to present-day acquisitions presently underway. For occasion, Empedrad gave updates on the point out of the frigates from South Korea, which have been crucial for Manila and Philippine-South Korea defense collaboration, saying that new frigates will be shipped previously than previously introduced dates. The commemoration was also an prospect to combine new equipment into the Philippine armed forces, like new anti-submarine warfare helicopters.

Some others had been more recent. For occasion, Empedrad made reference to the approval of two corvette warships costing 28 billion pesos (roughly $535.87 million) that have been more able than two new South Korean frigates, which would also be element of Philippine capabilities. He also mentioned other line goods, including 8 speedy attack interdiction craft missile for which a finances of 10 billion pesos had been allocated, shore-primarily based missile devices, and, notably, the acquisition of two submarines which experienced been in the headlines earlier as very well.

Unsurprisingly, supplied the Duterte administration’s precedence locations for defense policy, Empedrad targeted most of his remarks on domestic challenges this kind of as countering terrorism and insurgencies, despite the reality that Manila faces a wide spectrum of threats and new tools can be made use of for a variety of applications. For occasion, he noted that the addition of missile abilities would aid “easily destroy” the enemy in a different Marawi-variety war, building reference to the disaster that the Philippines experienced professional following a siege by Islamic State-backed rebels in the country’s south. He also framed the shipping of a donated Pohang-class corvette by South Korea, predicted shortly, in a identical way, noting that whole control of maritime waters in Mindanao would assistance the state struggle a decades-outdated communist insurgency by denying them transportation inbound links and disrupting logistics or source traces during a future conflict.

That reported, Empedrad did not shy away from addressing other features of Philippine safety coverage, even although they highlighted divergences amongst Duterte’s personal general public stances. For instance, when addressing the recent China-Philippine collision, for occasion, Empedrad said that contrary to original Chinese claims, this was considerably from a “normal maritime incident.” This was a a great deal much better assertion as opposed to Duterte’s remarks wherever, soon after times of silence, he had known as it a “maritime incident.”

Over-all, although nothing at all wholly new was disclosed, the anniversary celebration did give a sense of the state of play of some ongoing and more recent acquisitions for the Philippine navy. As we move into the relaxation of 2019 and into 2020, it will be fascinating to view the extent of continuity and transform with regard to what we have read from Philippine officials.

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