DND eyes smaller gunboats, not frigates

MANILA, Philippines — The military is thinking of acquiring smaller gunboats for the Navy, instead of bigger warships like the two frigates that the government acquired from South Korea.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the department is studying the advantages and disadvantages of big ships and smaller ships.

While the decision is not yet final, Lorenzana said the country being an archipelagic state and the missions that Navy ships will be undertaking would be the basis of whether the Navy will have bigger warships in the future.

“We’ll look at our geography and the mission our ships will undertake. That would be the basis of our decision,” Lorenzana said.

There were reports the controversies involving the government’s P18-billion frigate acquisition that South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is building for the Philippine Navy (PN) have something to do with this decision.

The Frigate Acquisition Project (FAP) controversy centered on the installation of the Combat Management System (CMS) on the two brand-new missile frigates that the Navy is acquiring from South Korea.

Former Navy chief, now retired vice admiral Ronald Mercado has been insisting on the installation of the Thales Tacticos CMS instead of the Hanwha that the HHI is installing on the two warships.

For not giving up his position, Lorenzana relieved Mercado as Navy chief for alleged insubordination.

Construction of the two warships is now underway following approval of the Project Management Team and Hyundai last March 24 of the much needed Critical Review of the Navy project.

“The project has been delayed for six months. Thanks to the meddling of Mercado. It should have been done last September yet. Hyundai will start cutting the steel for the frigates later this month. The frigate program will go on smoothly from here on. We expect them to be delivered in 2020 or 2021,” Lorenzana said.

Capt. Lued Lincuna, Navy spokesman, said Technical Inspection and Acceptance Committee (TIAC) of FAP led by Commodore Alberto Carlos approved the Critical Design (CDR) last March 23.

Lincuna said the TIAC acceptance marks a significant step forward and a major milestone of the project, which consists of the approval of 71 critical detailed design drawings as submitted by the winning shipbuilder of the frigates, Hyundai Heavy Industries.