New Israeli missile system installed on Navy vessels

The Philippine Navy (PN) will soon have its first missileequipped vessels.

Three Multi-Purpose Attack Craft (MPAC) made by local ship builder Prompmech Corp. in Zambales are now being fitted with the Rafael Missile Systems at the cost of P270 million.

“This is just the initial MPACs that will have missile firing capabilities but the Philippine Navy will have more ships with missile firing capabilities in the near future,” a senior navy official said.

The official, however, could not give the exact launch date of the missile-firing MPAC which were commissioned into active service of the Navy in May last year.

Once the missile systems’ installation has been completed, the Navy will for the first time have missile-firing ships in its inventory.

“It will make our Navy more credible. It makes the Armed Forces of tahe Philippines (AFP) more credible. It means that we are more credible now in patrolling our area of responsibility,” he said.

The missile-firing MPAC, however, is not designed for long endurance naval missions in the open sea since its surface-to-surface missiles has an effective range of five nautical miles or less the 10 kilometers.

Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong confirmed the delivery of Israeli-made missile systems to the Navy.

He added the missile systems are undergoing integration under the guidance of Rafael, a defense supplier from Israel.

The MPAC will greatly enhance the Navy’s capability in securing the country’s littoral areas against terrorism as well as maritime law enforcement operations, Andolong said.

In a related development, defense officials led by Secretary Delfin Lorenzana visited the Ulsan shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) last April 30 for the steel cutting of the frigates acquired by the Philippine government.

The event signaled the start of the construction of government’s P18-billion Frigate Acquisition Project for the Navy under the AFP Modernization Program.

The HHI would be installing the Hanwha Naval Shield on the two frigates instead of the already proven Thales Tacticos.

“Koreans have signified that it will be Hanwha as like Thales, it is complaint with the technical classification,” Andolong said.

Delivery of first frigate is scheduled in 2020 while the second will be in 2021. Aside from the ship-to-air missiles and torpedoes, the two frigates, measuring 107 meters in length and 12 meters in width, will be armed with 76mm guns.