MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte recently approved the second phase of the Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program (RAFPMP) with funding of about 300 billion pesos ($5.6 billion).
In an interview with Arab News, Defense Department (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said this will enable the government to get back on track establishing “a credible defense posture.”
Under horizon two of RAFPMP, which is expected to run from 2018 to 2022, new equipment will be acquired to modernize the country’s outdated military. This will include submarines, frigates, fighter aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), howitzers, crew-served weapons and radar.
Some of the items, including the submarines, were originally slated for acquisition under horizon three of the RAFPMP set for 2023 to 2028. The Duterte administration, however, decided to bring the acquisition forward to the second horizon.
Andolong cited two reasons why the government has decided to track the military’s modernization. “One is our desire, and the president recognizes this, to bring our modernization back on track. And, two, is that the ever-evolving security situation calls for it already.” He also pointed out the geopolitical climate in the region, with rising tensions between the US and China, and other countries that have interest in the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea.
“Unfortunately, we are in the middle of all of that. The government has realized that we cannot afford to just sit back and wait for these things (AFP modernization) to happen on their own. We really need to have political will,” Andolong said.
The 15-year RADPMP began during the previous administration of Benigno Aquino III, but implementation of the program was delayed. It was only toward the end of the Aquino administration that the first phase of the program was approved.
Out of the roughly $5.6 billion approved by Duterte, $2.6 billion will be for the air force, $1.4 billion for the navy, $890 million for the army, and some for the government’s arsenal and for the AFP general headquarters.
Equipment to be acquired for the air force includes multi-role fighters, radar systems, light utility and medium-lift aircraft, heavy-lift helicopters, UAVs, attack and combat utility helicopters, special mission and long-range patrol aircraft and trainer aircraft.
The navy will get frigates, corvettes, submarines, amphibious assault vehicles, anti-submarine helicopters, attack crafts, medium-lift helicopters and multi-role vessels. Purchases for the army will include towed and self-propelled howitzers, multiple-launch rocket systems, light tanks, armored recovery vehicles, tactical radios, ground mobility equipment, individual weapons, crew-served weapons and night-fighting equipment.
Also on the shopping list are combat engineers, force protection, explosives ordnance disposal, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and medical equipment.
“If we do get all of this, it will enable to us to put us back on track our objective of attaining credible defense posture,” Andolong said.
“We are talking about our capability to fulfill our mandate to protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity. This is our capability to patrol our territory and repel any invaders.”
At present, the AFP lacks the capability to even verify reports such as missiles being positioned by another country in the Spratly Islands, or airborne intruders in Philippine airspace. “Information is provided to us by our allies and from the news,” Andolong said.
The Philippines’ plan is that by 2028 AFP should be a fully capable and modernized military.
Philippines outlines $5.6bn plan to modernize forces by 2028
Philippines outlines $5.6bn plan to modernize forces by 2028
- Out of the roughly $5.6 billion approved by Duterte, $2.6 billion will be for the air force, $1.4 billion for the navy, $890 million for the army, and some for the government’s arsenal and for the AFP general headquarters
- The 15-year RADPMP began during the previous administration of Benigno Aquino III, but implementation of the program was delayed. It was only toward the end of the Aquino administration that the first phase of the program was approved
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
