Subic firm building high-speed gunboats for PHL coastal defense
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT— Subic boat builder Safe hullMarine Technologies Inc. is making a name in the shipbuilding industry by manufacturing high-speed patrol craft and gunboats for the Philippine defense establishment.
The Filipino-owned company, which occupies a factory and warehouse here at Subic’s Global Industrial Park, is now producing high-speed tactical watercraft (HSTW) and multipurpose attack craft (MPAC) to boost the military’s littoral combat force.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said Safe- hull Marine recently delivered 21 units of the 40-foot long HSTW that the Philippine National Police would be deploying to Mindanao this year.
The HSTW had been commissioned by the PNP for patrolling the country’s exclusive economic zone, law enforcement and maintaining peace and order, as well as for humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
Each equipped with three Honda outboard motors, the fiberglass-hulled boats can reach a top speed of 45 knots and are intended to operate approximately 200 miles from shore and in slight to moderate sea conditions.
“This is a sleek, good-looking boat that you would mistake for a pleasure yacht. But it’s really fast and stable and could be mounted with guns for tactical missions,” said Eisma who joined a sea trial of the watercraft the other week.
“It makes us proud that this boat is made in Subic, and that it’s a product of Filipino ingenuity,” Eisma said.
Safehull company officials said they were able to make a breakthrough in producing the HSTW after perfecting the vacuum-infusion process, which shortened the period of hull construction from three weeks to one day.
Safehull, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Manila-based Propmech Corp., is engaged in the fabrication of ship and ship components, ship repair, and engineering services for design and installation of parts and modules.
Safehull officials said 30 percent of the boats built here in Subic are for clients in the defense industry, including the US military.
The boats are designed, assembled and outfitted in Subic by Safehull and Propmech by means of local naval architects and workers, and in partnership with foreign technology companies like the Damen Group of Netherlands, Saab Group of Sweden, Taiwan’s Lung Teh Shipbuilding Co., and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense System.
The Propmech and Safehull joint venture also built three MPAC delivered to the Philippine Navy in 2009, 2012 and 2017. This year, it is scheduled to build another unit of MPAC for the Philippine Navy.
In November last year the Philippine Navy successfully test-fired its first missile system by arming its Propmech-Safehull MPAC Mark3 with a Spike extended range missile from Rafael.
Other vessels built by the Subic firm included a 15-meter landing craft vehicle personnel for the Philippine Navy; 136 units of 50-horsepower rubber boats for the PNP; 21-meter passenger/ cargo boats; multipurpose patrol boats for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources; and aluminum rescue boats for the Philippine Coast Guard.