‘Glad we are back to the supersonic age’: Philippines gets first fighter jets in a decade amid sea feud with China
The Philippines is on a spending spree to modernise one of Asia's weakest militaries
Philippine President Benigno Aquino has approved the purchase of 44 billion pesos (US$932 million) worth of military equipment to help boost maritime security capability as tensions simmer in the South China Sea.
Defence Undersecretary Fernando Manalo made the announcement Saturday after the government received the first two of a dozen new South Korean-made light fighter jets to enhance the country’s air defence capabilities.
Aquino authorised the multi-year contract to purchase two frigates, eight amphibious assault vehicles, three anti-submarine helicopters, two long-range patrol aircraft, three aerial radars, munitions for the fighters and close support planes, Manalo said.
The FA-50 fighter trainers from South Korea were acquired by the Philippines for 18.9 billion pesos. Seoul has committed to deliver 10 more light fighters until 2017.
Weapons for the FA-50s, including bombs and rockets, will be purchased later.
“We’re glad we are back to the supersonic age,” said Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, witnessing the transfer of the aircraft from Korean Aerospace Inc. to the Philippine Air Force.
The Philippines has had no fighter capability since it mothballed its Vietnam War vintage F-5A/Bs in the mid-2000s. It has a few S-211 Italian trainer jets, acquired in the late 1980s.
“With these aircraft, our capability to guard maritime borders will be enhanced,” an air force general said, declining to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“Our response time will be quicker but we would need radar and communications to fully integrate our air defence systems.”
Lieutenant Colonel Rolando Condrad Pena III, one of three Filipino air force pilots who received training in Korea to fly the FA-50s, said that the jets could carry enough munitions payload and could be used in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
“Now that we have a supersonic aircraft our reaction time will be faster,” Pena said.
Still, the Philippines has ruled out a military solution to the territorial conflicts with its limited defence capabilities.
In January 2013, the Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration, but Beijing refused to participate and pressed for one-on-one negotiations.
An international tribunal in The Hague, however, dismissed China's legal arguments last month and ruled that it has authority to hear the Philippines' case.
It said it expects to hand down a decision next year on several issues raised by the Philippines, including the validity of China's sweeping territorial claims under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
China has built seven artificial islands in the Spratly Islands and is constructing military facilities, including airfields, ports and lighthouses.
The Philippines’ ill-equipped armed forces are no match for those of China, despite receiving two cutters and coastal radar stations from the United States in 2011. Washington promised to deliver late next year another cutter and two C-130 planes.
China claims 90 per cent of the South China Sea’s 3.5 million sq km waters. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims to at least parts of the area.
Reuters, Associated Press
