The philippines is looking for a new
multi-role fighter jet and is evaluating
the F-16 and the saab abs gripen. The announcement on thursday comes as
the united states seeks to renew an
agreement with the philippines governing
the u.s troop presence in the country, which is critical to washington strategy
to counter ever-expanding chinese
activity in asia.
Last week the philippines again
suspended for another six months a move
to scrap the two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that had been due
to expire in august. The pentagon said the philippines
requested to buy 10 F-16C blocks 70-70
seconds aircraft and 2 F-16D block 7070
seconds aircraft made by Lockheed Martin Co, that package which includes spares and
training is valued at up to 2.43 billion
dollars. Despite the state department approval
the notification does not indicate that
a contract has been signed or that
negotiations have concluded. Often during a competition the
department will approve exports before a
winner is named.
Eric Sayers a visiting fellow at the
conservative american enterprise
institute said it appeared to be a
proactive effort by washington to ensure
the united states remains the security
partner of choice for manila. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte
who has frequently condemned u.s foreign
policy while exploring closer ties with
china, told washington last year he was
canceling the BFA amid outrage over a
senator and ally being denied a u.s visa. Since then he has slowly backtracked on
his threat and has repeatedly suspended
the expiration date of the military
exercises.
Gregory Poling, the maritime security
expert at the center for strategic and
international studies said one of Duterte's complaints has been his
perception that the u.s does not provide
high-quality equipment to the
philippines.
"I'd expect that the u.s government will
be looking for opportunities over the
next six months to combat that
perception," he said.
The Pentagon also notified congress on
thursday of the possible sale of two
missile packages to the philippines. One was for 12 harpoon air launch block
2 missiles, 2 training missiles, spares
and equipment made by boeing and valued
at up to 120 million dollars. Another was for 24 Aim-9x sidewinder
block 2 tactical missiles, 24 training
missiles and spare parts made by
raytheon technologies and valued at up
to 42.4 million dollars.
The philippines is a u.s treaty ally and
several military agreements are
dependent on the BFA which governs the
rotation of thousands of u.s troops in
and out of the philippines. Having the ability to rotate in troops
is important not only for the defense of
the philippines but strategically for
the u.s when it comes to countering
china's increasingly assertive behavior
in the region.
"The package is a serious step that will
certainly get beijing's attention," said
sayers.
Lockheed Martin said the F-16 would play
a significant role in strengthening
manila's strategic partnership with
washington and its allies while enabling
the philippines to join other southeast
asian F-16 operators.
The philippines has been upgrading its
military capability and equipment in
recent years, but it is still considered
as behind other countries in the region. In recent months, tensions with china
over maritime borders in the south china
sea have made it more urgent for the
country to improve its own military
capability.
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