Last week, the Philippine Navy made an announcement about the future integration of the new missile system into its capabilities. The announcement marked another signpost in the military modernization aspect of the Southeast Asian nation under President Rodrigo Duterte. As I have observed earlier in these pages, one of the main developments in Philippine military modernization that continues under Duterte is the finalization of the procurement of the Spike long-range missile system from the Israeli weapons manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which will be installed on the Aircraft all-purpose PN attack (MPAC). In addition to the fact that the missile system is a manifestation of the growing Israeli-Philippine defense collaboration that has taken place under Duterte, the system has also represented a milestone for the PN because that means it is equipped with anti-first time. surface missile capability.
The missile system first arrived at the end of April 2018, and was gradually incorporated into the MPAC afterwards. For example, in November 2018, an important test was held in which three MPACs, all equipped with the Spike-ER missile system, together with the AgustaWestland AW-109 attack helicopter participated in a demonstration of capability-based scenarios and direct firing.
Last week, this aspect of Philippine military modernization made headlines again with new announcements made regarding the Spike-ER and MPAC missile systems. A Philippine Navy official indicated that three more MPACs would be equipped with Spike-ER land-to-surface missiles next year.
Launchers for the Spike-EU surface-to-surface missile will be installed in early 2020, Philippine Navy spokesman Henry Quinto said in a telephone interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA). Quinto does not reveal more specifically about how the installation will be carried out. But he said that the installation would "be carried out in the Philippines as in the previous MPAC," indicating that the process would take a series of tests as in the previous example as well.
Assuming the installation takes place on schedule, there will be a total of six Spike-ER weapons platforms in the Philippine Navy. This will happen because the Philippines continues to obtain more MPACs, as explained by Philippine defense officials earlier as well. There are currently a total of 12 MPACs in the PN, and PN head Robert Empedrad previously indicated that at least 12 MPAC would be obtained in the so-called Third Horizon of Philippine military modernization, which lasted from 2023 to 2028 as the Philippines continued to develop its capabilities in the coming years.
Source : PhilippineMilitaryNews
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