The Department of National Defense (DND) has signed a contract worth P15.7 billion with Hyundai of the Republic of South Korea to build two brand new frigates for the Navy.
South Korean Navy Incheon-class frigates, the design on which two Philippine Navy frigates on order are to be based. Republic of Korea Navy handout.
According to Raymundo Elefante, DND Undersecretary for Finance, Munitions, Installations and Materiel, the contract was signed Monday by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
Elefante said the contract is the first big-ticket item entered into with a foreign supplier by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
"This is the first time for our Navy to have a modern frigate, and it will be additional, of course, to the fleet as part of our modernization," he said.
Elefante did not specify when the frigates would be finished and the time of delivery.
No other details were given.
The afore-mentioned contract amount does not include the armaments that would be installed, as this would be a separate contract.
The frigates would be added assets of the Navy's mission to patrol and defend the country's territorial waters, especially in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), where China has been in a territory grabbing spree in the Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ) despite the ruling of the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) debunking Beijing's controversial so-called "9-dash line" claim in the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, Elefante who is currently in Japan, disclosed in a telephone interview that DND is also set to lease 5 TC9 long-range patrol aircraft to boost the capability of the Air Force for aerial patrol and surveillance in the WPS and other parts of the country.
He said Japan would be leasing the aircraft to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for $US7,000 per year for four of them, and only $US200 for the fifth one because it is already an old one.
"In the contract, we can lease and use the aircraft as long we want to use them. There is no expiration," Elefante said.
The two frigates ordered from the Korean are smaller but inherit main design features of South Korea's Incheon class ships, albeit with a lighter displacement.
According to Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the design is based on the company's HDF-3000 multipurpose frigate design, which features an overall length of 114.3 m, and has been used as the basis for the Republic of Korea Navy's (RoKN's) Incheon (FFX-I)-class guided-missile frigates.
The platform for the Philippine Navy will, instead, feature overall length of 107 m, a standard displacement of about 2,600 tonnes, and an operational survivability up to Sea State 5.
The ships will feature a combined diesel and diesel (CODAD) propulsion system, and feature a maximum speed of 25 kt, with a standard range of 4,500 nautical miles at 15 kt.
HHI disclosed only that the frigates will be "heavily armed with missiles, torpedo, guns and sensors", and that they will be capable of anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine and electronic warfare.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/133666/dnd-inks-p15-7b-contract-with-hyundai-for-2-new-frigates
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