MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Army (PA) is scheduled to test the .50 caliber-remote controlled weapons system (RCWS) of its newly acquired M-113 armored personnel carriers (APCs) on Monday.
PA spokesperson Col. Benjamin Hao on Sunday said PA will hold the demonstration before members of the media at the rifle range of the Mechanized Infantry Division Camp O’Donnel, Capas, Tarlac.
The newly acquired six APCs were part of the 28 APCs ordered from Israeli defense manufacturer Elbit Systems Ltd.
The APCs contract, worth P882-million, was signed June 22, 2014. The M-113 APCs arrived in June 18, 2015 and was transported to Tarlac last July 8.
Reports said the acquisition of APCs from Israel is expected to boost the Army’s fighting capability.
According to PA, fourteen of the M-113s will be configured as fire support vehicles, while four will be used as infantry fighting vehicles, six of which as APCs while the remaining four will be configured as armored recovery units.
To date, PA operates 343 armored fighting vehicles (AFV) and APCs.
The AFVs consists of 150 United Kingdom-built GKN “Simba”, US-designed V-150 and V-200 APCs, M113s, Turkish-made ACV-300s and British Scorpion CVRTs.
Around 85 percent of these AFVs are on green status or fully mission capable while another 10 percent are on yellow status or undergoing repair and five percent are on red status or beyond repair to provide PA its armor capability.