The acquisition would be financed by a
government-to-government loan agreement, defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana said
in earlier statements. HHI has been the
favored supplier for the program since
it was announced in 2019, based on
statements of top defense and navy
officials. The south korean shipbuilder
also built two multi-role frigates for
the philippine navy in a P16 billion
contract in 2016.
The corvette
acquisition project which is estimated
to cost P28 billion including weapon
systems is one of the big ticket items
in the philippine navy's upgrade program. Plans to acquire the corvettes had been
stalled last year because of the
diversion of defense funds to pandemic
response.
The warships would boost the country's
presence around the archipelago
especially in the west philippine sea, where tensions continue to rise. The
development came shortly after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released funding for the 15 down payment
of the corvette acquisition project
worth P3.75 billion last december 10. A contract signing could happen before
year end, said the senior officials.
the
acquisition would be financed by a
government-to-government loan agreement, defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana said
in earlier statements. hhi has been the favored supplier for
the program since it was announced in
2019 based on statements of top defense
and navy officials. The south korean
shipbuilder also built two multi-role
frigates for the philippine navy in a P16 billion contract in 2016. But the
frigate acquisition project attracted
public interest in 2018 after a conflict
in the selection of the combat
management systems cm)s considered as the
brain of the warships.
The disagreement
stemmed from the failure of the
shipbuilder to meet the original
preference for a link 16 compatible CMS by the philippine navy's technical
working group. In the end the south
korean ministry of defense issued a
guarantee that the ship's cms is
compatible with link 16 despite the
absence of u.s certification and the
shipbuilder has offered to pay for the
integration of the CMS to link 16, when
the navy acquires this capability in the
future.
The corvette acquisition project which
is estimated to cost P28 billion
including weapon systems is one of the
big ticket items in the philippine
navy's upgrade program. Plans to acquire
the corvettes have been stalled last
year because of the diversion of defense
funds to pandemic response. The warships
would boost the country's presence
around the archipelago especially in the
west philippine sea where tensions
continue to rise.
The navy recently
retired the last two of its World War II era patrol ships despite the lack of
immediate replacements. Navy chief vice
administration Atlas Bordado said the
two corvettes and six offshore patrol
vessels would see initial deliveries in
two to three years.
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