As part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines 2nd horizon modernization project. AFP also considered to acquire a capable and armed small naval corvette ship which is smaller than a frigate and an “offshore patrol vessel” for its navy fleet.
AFP described the modernization program as being divided into three “horizons.” The first, which costs P85 billion, will help the Philippines achieve a “minimum credible defense posture” in protecting the country’s territory.
The second horizon is another P85-P100 billion which will take six years, while the third horizon is P100-P125 billion and another six years for military hardware and also bases development.
A “corvette” is a small class of combat ship, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, smaller and cheaper than a frigate but larger than a coastal patrol craft. It is often the smallest in any fleet. These ships have limited range and weapon systems, but they are quite effective at tracking down and hence primarily used by naval police to patrol the sea and also for close defense of a larger ship.
Take a look at the following list of corvette naval ships and offshore patrol vessels that the AFP is currently checking and looking for.
Corvettes and Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV)
1. Baynunah (UAE) – $137 million
The Baynunah corvettes serves as a patrol and surveillance, mine laying, interception and other anti-surface warfare operations as well as guarding the nation’s territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone.
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I’m upset on how our military officials procure our defensive military assets. The two planned brandnew frigates had sunk before it was procured. The coastal based defensive missile from Israel was cancelled for personnel protective gears…. i think, these two items i mentioned above is more vital for the protection of our soverienty than those protective gears.
Now, comes again these corvettes. Very affordable indeed. But its useless to plan if those people involve in procuring these assets do not have the will to proceed.
Are we only have to depend on giveaways by friendly countries? Beggars!!!
Just imagine, VP Binay is accusing Pnoy of having saved 303 B for the cofers of the coming election. That’s $6 Billion. Imagine what it can do for the minimum credible defense program. All of that will be funded 4X over!
the best president ever
Ex-Cong. Roilo Golez has a good point. Even if 2 new frigates are being built somewhere which was inadvertently announced by a retired naval officer, at approx. P16 billion pesos for 2 second hand Maestrale class frigates, our country will have 2 operational frigates with proper armaments that can already be deployed at the West Phil. Sea side of the South China Sea. Pres. BSA III can easily come up with the funds to purchase both second hand frigates from Italy. At this early, the president should also start scouting and buying new multi purpose fighter jets with appropriate modern weapons as a step ahead, by the time the FA-50 fighter jets arrived from South Korea, the training of our PAF fighter pilots can go step ladder from trainer jet to real multi jet fighter pilot capabilities. At least 12 new multi purpose fighter jets should be purchase NOW with expected initial delivery of 1 year from now. How about buying 2nd hand F-16 fighter jets from the US inventory which are at the moment mothballed for future use? We enjoin the DND secretary and his coterie of senior military officers to present to the president their urgent military upgrade requirements instead of just awaiting for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th horizon military modernization project duration to take its rather long delayed timelines.
Acquire at least 5 swedish visiby class corvettes
maybe that will scared a couple of chinese fishermen
yeah – fastest of all corvettes…with 35knots/hr…
Nope, the UAE is more faster, cheaper and more armed and capabilities.
i suggest the number 11. port of spain
buy it
the AFP modernization particularly purchasing modern equipment such as MRF, Frigates, Tanks, Air defense systems etc should be fact tracked. this is very much needed right now!
buy now!
The sigma, visby, baynunah, port of Spain and felaj 2 in my opinion would be awesome for our navy. If I have to pick one it would be the felaj 2 because of its price and the amount of armaments it could carry. But, if the budget is bigger, I’d go for the sigma. It’s modular design would be a great asset for the Navy. It could be a corvette, heavy corvette, light frigate. You can add or remove segments from the ship to make it bigger or smaller depending on the mission and everything can be done at the base where it came from. It doesn’t have to go to the ship yard for that. (Citation needed ). There are different variants to this ship. But I think this would be a great addition for the Navy.
Modern ships do not help if they don’t have over the horizon anti-ship missiles, at least a Harpoon or Naval Strike Missile, in order to counter threat ships, otherwise they just become expensive target practice for PLAN ships. A smaller PLAN Type 056 corvette carries at least 4 x YJ-83 missiles which can sink any Philippine vessel from 180 km. All Philippine navy frigates and corvettes have are 76 mm guns. They will all be sunk before they even knew what happened. Better to invest in a stand-off anti-ship capability. Also, they need SM-3 Surface-to-Air missiles in order to protect themselves from incoming enemy missiles and aircraft. These missiles cost far less than a new frigate and would make even existing ships more potent. It is not the size or the number of ships, it is their capability that counts. Better to have less, but more capable ships than a bunch of expensive targets.