One of the Philippines biggest project in its military modernization program is to acquire two capable and hi-tech missile-firing frigates for the Philippine Navy wherein an Indian shipbuilder has offered the lowest bid.

Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo told media that a state-run firm which is the Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd of India has been declared the lowest bidder for the multi-billion peso frigate acquisition project.

Garden Reach offered to supply the frigate for P15.047 billion pesos, about P950 million lower than the P16 billion approved budget for the project.

INS_Kamorta_
INS Karmota frigate – commons.wikimedia.org

Only Garden Reach and Hyundai were declared as qualified bidders as the two other bidders had failed to meet some documentary requirements

Manalo said that among other bidders joined in the bidding process are Navantia Sepi of Spain, STX Offshore & Shipbuilding of South Korea, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. of South Korea, Hyundai Heavy Industries Inc. of South Korea, and STX France SA.

He said, specifications of the proposed frigates state that it must be at least 95-meters in length, with a displacement of 2,000 tons, capable of carrying and housing a 12-ton helicopter and capable of engaging in anti-surface, anti-submarine, anti-air and electronic warfare.

Manalo added that this two frigate are the proposed home of the soon-to-arrive two AgustaWestland AW-159 “Wildcat”. A submarine hunter types helicopter of the Philippine Navy. – Carl E.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. No this is a mistake..we should study our requirements very well…Philippines should not be fooled into this deal…please do a careful study…I saw the indian delegation to the philippines when they are marketing their frigates…the counter trade agreement is not reason enough to say that this is the superior deal for the philippines…south korea and spain should have better ships and technology package….please consider your motherland before your pockets…

    • When we ordered our Strategic Sealift Vessels from Indonesia, there were a lot of
      bloggers that disapprove of it being ordered and built by Indonesia. It is always a mentality of most Filipinos if a certain thing are not made in US, Europe or any G8 member countries it is inferior, it is like our colonial mentality of things made in the US. There are so many emerging and developing countries that are now in the forefront of technology. Those professionals in our DND and Armed Forces who analyze and research the weapon platforms we purchase are not “dumb” that’s their profession compare to us “mouse pushers” only getting our knowledge from daily surfing and browsing the net. I agree with you if we were in the 70s and 80s where they only think of their pockets. Our time now is different than before, let the professionals do there job. This is one example of our Crab Mentality.

      • The procurement is not very well documented. There are reasons to doubt the way the selection has been done. Firstly, I happened to see the indian delegation the indian delegation at DND when they came and approached the people who are making decisions regarding the acquisition AS AGAINST DND approaching a ship builder with specific performance requirements. The latter is how normally things are done..like in the US. The army sets the parameters and prospective suppliers make offers…options are rated based on tests tests and lots of tests….the winning supplier gets selected after a very rigid process…the same way that I expect from our very expensive acquisition…remember we need to be very careful with the use of our scarce resources…like it or not those weapons we are acquiring is only a drop in the bucket so our money should go a very very long way…stop your branding style…they don’t count in any discussion.

  2. This is not a Frigate. It’s a submarine hunter!!! Don’t know why we buy this when we need a missle ship!

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