With the impending arrival of an additional 114 M-113
armored personnel carriers this November, all battalions of the Army's
Mechanized Infantry Division (MID) will be bought to strength.
This was emphasized by MID public affairs office chief Major
Felimon Tan during an interview Monday.
"Arrival of these additional armored vehicles will
definitely bring all our mechanized infantry battalions up to strength,"
he said in Filipino when asked what these APCs can do to the MID's
capabilities.
A Philippine mechanized infantry battalion is supposed to
have 36 armored vehicles as fighting force but due to lack of equipment, some
units are operating only 26 to 27 APCs which is below their mandated
complement.
And with all its battalions up to strength, it can deployed
more units for whatever missions the Armed Forces of the Philippines can assign
to it.
The MID is known to be operating 343 to 345 armored vehicles
of all types as of this posting.
The first batch of the US-made, although declared
"Excess Defense Articles," is expected to arrive by mid-November.
The Philippine government did not pay a single centavo for
this acquisition although it has to shoulder the cost of shipping and
refurbishment of these APCs.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=806557
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