By: Rahel-U
“New weapons and new military vehicles will soon be coming into
Phillipines to add more strength into the country’s defense,” this was recapped
by the President Aquino on Thursday.
The Philippine government has already spent P40 billion in upgrading
and modernizing the Armed Force of the
Philippines in the past four years. He
also mentioned that this is better compared to the previous administrator under
the leadership of Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, which only spend P26 billion on
AFP upgrading in almost 10 years.
He further added that under his leadership, the Philippines has already
acquired the following military equipment such as:
2 Hamilton Class Cutters
3
AW-109 naval helicopters
4 refurbished UH-1 helicopters
8 Sokol Combat Utility Helicopters
BRP Tagbanua, a locally built landing craft utility ship
The President said that the arrival of 12 FA-50 lead-in fighter trainer jets will be
expected next year, while the other will
arrive before 2017. The AFP has already received the first batch of the first hand weapon such as M4 Caliber 5.56mm
rifles. He said, that the government kept P1.2 billion fund during the
procurement process, which allowed the acquisition of another 12,657 M4s
"and to reserve some budget for the
following rifle procurements."
Aside from that, some of the military equipment to be received by the AFP include 17
refurbished UH-1 helicopters, eight more combat utility helicopters, two anti-submarine
helicopters,two long-range patrol aircraft, six close-air support aircraft with
two frigates and three full missile capable of handling multi-purpose attack
crafts.
In his statement, he said anytime the government has a chance to
make the military forces more resourceful, the government has every intention of
taking the chances, but he also made clear
the present military modernization has no connection with continuing
territorial rows in the county.
Aquino stressed the country's military modernization has nothing
to do with ongoing territorial rows in the region.
