Establishing a Minimum Credible Defense by the Armed Forces of the Philippines

I have worked as a boatswainmate and worked my way up as a Logistic Management Specialist in the US naval establishment...as such, I have developed a serious penchant for and atttachment to naval defense...Upon my retirement as an expat in the Philippines, I have read numerous times, bloggers and experts (Timawa, Philippine Defense Forum, name it) arguing which is the best platform for the low budget Philippine Navy... there you go,  low budget... the filipino naval planners know and want the best but they have to content with a minimal budget... a dilemma for these very intelligent Filipino admirals...

With a marginal budget allocation for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, RP military planners should focus on what Japan called establishing a "minimum credible defense" when they decided to grant ships to the Philippine Navy ... RP's goal should be similar to their current set-up:  one they call Self-Defense Forces...

One of RP naval leaders said they need bigger ships like the 40 year old 380 footer Hamilton-class cutter PF-15 BRP Gregorio Del Pilar, which can travel at very dangerous level Sea State, a slow 28knots, a 45-day endurance costing Php 450million....

http://ph.news.yahoo.com

 

Let us compare this with the 17 year old Cyclone-class patrol craft PS-38 BRP Mariano Alvarez, which cannot travel a dangerous Sea State though, a fast speed of 35-40 knots, 10-day endurance costing Php 765million to retrofit...

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In a few years, RP will be retiring that Hamilton-class cutter...The US is still operating the Cyclone class patrol craft- 8 in mainland US and 5 in Bahrain...meaning, RP has a chance of getting more of these well designed ships, which can be at par with most Chinese naval vessels.

At 30 knots or approx 35km per hr they need 2-3days to get to the Spratlys from mainland China...the Cyclone class at 35 knots or approx 40km per hr can get to the Spratlys in 4-6hours at moderate speed....

Impressive was the recent addition to the RP navy of 2 locally manufactured Multi-Purpose Attack craft MPACs BA-486, -487, having speeds of 42knots, 20soldiers capacity... wow....I hope the RP navy gets more of these soon...the only problem with these is their moderate Sea State capacity... if China decides to attack the Spratlys in rough weather, which is highly unprobable.

Reuters- Romeo Ranoco

If one wonders on the reason why the Iranian navy deploys small fast attack boats to block the Strait of Hormuz in a crisis and can threaten modern US navy warships... think again- a small fast attack boat is difficult to track on radar, so the modern warship has to go primitive using manual lookouts with binoculars to track them...With Iranian diesel submarines lurking, US warships turn-off their radar signatures while transiting the narrow strait and again go manual lookouts...Hawkeyes or AWACs takes over then...This is one reason for the success of world war II US PTF-17 class Nasty patrol torpedo fast boats or the Vietnam war Soviet PTF-105 Shersen class patrol torpedo fast boats...

Just imagine a naval battle scenario with the Philippine Navy having 50 or more small fast attack torpedo boats buzzing all around 10 slower-bigger Chinese patrol boats....

Let us not fear the 15 or so Chinese coastal missile boats because 1500miles is very far for them to travel at very dangerous Sea State...even if they station them on the Spratlys, they cannot hold on during typhoons...Philippines is only 150miles from Palawan or Subic bay to  most of the occupied Spratly islands- Thitu-Pagasa island or Scarborough Shoal.

Let us not fear also of an enormous Chinese naval or air armada...this will surely invite naval blockade by the US 7th Fleet whose taskforce is nearby to enforce freedom of navigation at the south China sea...Let us not forget what happened years back in the straits of Taiwan...

Aside from small fast attack patrol boats, what the Philippines need are modern surface to air missiles and surface to ship missiles...I hope the Aquino administration pushes for the revival of the Marcos era Sta Barbara missile project or requests Japan grants for missiles of  type 93 SAM-3 or type 88 SSM-1...all the RP occupied Spratly islands should have missile launchers...man portable missiles will do for now...maybe we can ask some Filipino OFWs from post-war Libya to smuggle some.

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Let us not fear any Chinese aircraft right now- they have to travel 1500miles from the Chinese mainland without aerial refueling...Let us worry when the carrier Varyag is fully operational...Even primitive RP airforce planes like the 300 nautical mile range, 5 hour endurance OV-10 at mach 0.5 can reach the Spratlys from Palawan in 0.5- 1hr.

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While working in one of the US naval facilities, I have encountered an incredible multi-role aircraft that has been retired by the US Navy but is still used by NASA and other US federal agencies. They call it the "Sea-Control" Lockheed S-3B Viking... 2× AGM-65E/F Maverick missiles, 2× AGM-84D Harpoon missiles,   1× AGM-84H/K SLAM-ER missile
anti-submarine, aerial tanking refueling, mine laying, reconnaisance, electronic warfare, anti-mine warfare, slow but slow all-weather, long range, quiet engine... the rest are classified...If the US will allow the transfer of this aircraft to the Philippines, it can be a formidable aircraft despite its age... It can still go through a depot-level life extension program like the OV-10 program...
It can lay mines and take them off later around the perimeter of RPs occupied Spratly islands to prevent a Chinese naval incursion... It can bomb the hell out of any Chinese warships- remember the Falklands war when Argentina sank a lot of British ships...it can do long range reconnaisance.