PAF badly needs new supersonic jet fighters (Last of a two-part Special Report)

From the Philippine News Agency (May 25): PAF badly needs new supersonic jet fighters (Last of a two-part Special Report)

From 1947 to date, the Philippine Air Force (PAF) had a total inventory of 1,028 aircraft composed of 251 fighter planes or equivalent to 20 squadrons, 203 transports, 372 trainer aircraft and 202 helicopters of various types, making the PAF a force to be reckoned with.

Over the years, however, the PAF had decommissioned all its jet fighter-interceptors, the last one in 2005 with the retirement of its F-5A/B war jet without any replacement, leaving the country’s airspace virtually defenseless without a single jet interceptor in its arsenal.

Today, the PAF has more or less 100 to 150 aircraft of various types, but without a single jet fighter to protect the country’s airspace and territorial waters, particularly the West Philippine Sea where China has laid claim.

If the PAF has modern jet fighters, it would have prevented Chinese vessels from entering into the Panatag Shoal which is well within the Philippine waters.

“The once proud and strong Air Force has become an ill-equipped and struggling Air Force,” said Brig. Gen. Raul L. del Rosario, wing commander of the PAF Air Defense Wing.

From being number one Air Force in Asia in the 1950s until the 1970s, the Philippines has been surpassed by Bangladesh which has a much lower gross domestic product (GDP) but with 77 multi-role fighters.

At its peak as Asia’s number one Air Force, the PAF had various types of aircraft, majority of which were grants from the United States such as the P-51, F-86, F-5, F-8, T-28, UH1H “Huey” helicopters as payments in return for the use of American bases in the Philippines until 1991 when the bases agreement ended.

Most of these aircraft were hand-me-downs from the U.S. That means the spare parts were supplied by the U.S.

When the Philippine Senate voted not to extend the RP-US bases agreement, the Americans left, so did the U.S. support for the PAF air power suffered a big blow.

There were other factors that stagnated the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), particularly the Air Force and Navy the past four decades.

The most telling problem that caused the snail-paced modernization program of the AFP was the shift of its focus from external defense upgrade to internal security operations.

For the Air Force and the Navy, with the latter also suffering from decrepit warships, it was disheartening that their defense capability has shrunk the past several years at a time when the nation is faced with an enormous security challenges.

After 47 years, insurgency is still hounding the country and aggravating the conditions are the natural calamities that plague the Philippines year in and year out such as the 7.2-magnitude Bohol earthquake and super typhoon "Yolanda" (international name: Haiyan) last year.

In 1995, Congress passed the AFP Modernization Law with an allocation of P331 billion.

But unfortunately, the modernization was not implemented fully, with only P30 billion spent for the procurement of military hardware during the past 15 years.

The modernization program also suffered a blow during the 1997 Asian monetary crisis when the dollar-peso rate ballooned to as much as P56.

Be that as it may, there is an urgent need for the AFP to have a credible air defense capability to preserve the country’s sovereignty.

The Aquino administration is fast-tracking the AFP modernization program. In the pipeline are surface attack aircraft and long-range patrol planes, medium-lift aircraft, helicopters, and new radars.

Indeed, defense buildup is very expensive but that is the price to pay to secure the country’s airspace and territorial waters from foreign intrusion.

The Philippines, the second largest archipelagic country in the world with 7,107 islands (the largest is Indonesia with over 13,000 islands) and a coastline of 35,289 kilometers, twice as long as that of the United States, needs a credible defense capability.

With no jet fighter left in the arsenal of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) since 2005, there is no way the Air Force can intercept any foreign aircraft intruding into Philippine airspace.

Adding to the security problem is that the Philippines has a limited radar capability.

The once mighty Philippine Navy (PN) is also suffering an acute shortage of ships.

As a consequence, border crossing violations in southern Philippines remain rampant.

It is common knowledge that foreign vessels are barely challenged coming in and out of the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), like the Chinese intrusion in the West Philippine Sea from time to time.

Based on statistics from the Department of Energy, the country is losing P7.1 billion per year through poaching, P19.4 billion per year from destruction of the corals and illegal fishing, a staggering P26.5 billion annually.

Worse is the current situation in the West Philippine Sea and Scarborough Shoal, where the country’s resources and sovereignty as a nation are threatened.

Another area of contention is the Spratly islands, including the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), where there is an enormous amount of untapped hydrocarbon deposits estimated at USD 26.3 trillion and 16.7 billion cubic feet of gas worth USD 46 billion.

Aside from the Philippines, Spratly islands are also claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.

With the Philippines lagging far behind in defense modernization, there is a need for the PAF to jump-start its air defense system.

Considering the billions of pesos needed to modernize the AFP, it is easier said than done but ultimately, at the end of the day, all these efforts will go to waste without the support of all stakeholders, in particular the executive and legislative branches of government.

The big challenge is rebuilding the much-needed air power capability of the PAF now, not later, to regain its glorious days of old truly as the country’s first line of defense that can be depended upon.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=10&sid=&nid=10&rid=646916