Arrival of Navy’s new cutter stalled

From the Manila Times (Mar 3): Arrival of Navy’s new cutter stalled

THE arrival of the Philippine Navy’s second weather high endurance cutte, the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, has suffered another delay because of extensive training being undergone by its crew that will take several more months to enable them to thoroughly master the ship’s state-of-the-art equipment.

Lt. Commander Gregory Gerald Fabic, Navy spokesman, disclosed on Sunday that the arrival of Alcaraz has again been rescheduled from April to August this year because of the training and orientation requirements that the crew need to undergo.

“This is because the ship, its more of technical. It is unlike in the training in the Army wherein you just teach them how to fire. The ship has sophisticated equipment, navigation, fire control, among others, that is why the people sent there have to undergo extensive training,” Fabic said.

Fabic admitted that the delay would affect the capability upgrading program of the Navy as the Alcaraz has already been earmarked for deployment in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) and other critical areas of the country.

“Of course, it has a big impact because this is an additional vessel to safeguard our water, territorial waters. It is a capability upgrade of the Navy because it is a weather high endurance cutter intended for long distance patrol,” he added.

The warship was originally scheduled to arrive from the US in December 2012 or in January 2013, but postponed to February and now moved to March or in April.

As this developed, the Chinese state media reported that Maritime Safety Administration of Hainan has deployed three more surveillance ships in the West Philippine Sea to “strengthen the country’s [China] maritime law enforcement capacity and test the patrol team’s rapid response abilities in the South China Sea.”

The Philippines and China, along with Vietnam, Brunei, Indonesia and Taiwan, are claiming in whole or in part the Spratly group of islands in the West Philippine Sea.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin earlier said that the BRP Ramon Alcaraz would be better equipped and more capable than the country’s first similar cutter, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

Early this year, President Aquino ordered top defense officials in a meeting in Malacañang to observe “due diligence” in the proposed capability upgrading of the Del Pilar and Alcaraz to make them capable and strong enough in securing the country’s interest in the West Philippine Sea.

Defense Undersecretary Fernando Manalo disclosed that their talks centered on the current firepower of the subject Navy cutters and what more can be added to further increase their capabilities relative to the security of the Malampaya Gas Project and other service contracts of the Department of Energy (DOE) off the coast of Palawan province in the West Philippine Sea.

“What was discussed was the security of Malampaya. Those ships will also be used in securing Malampaya and other service contracts of the DOE. So we updated [him] on the status of PF 15, the Gregorio del Pilar, and the status of PF 16 [Ramon Alcaraz], when it [Alcaraz] will arrive, its capability and what still can be done to increase its capability,” Manalo disclosed.

According to Manalo, the President was amenable to the proposal but instructed them to first observe “due diligence” in selecting the best available option, adding that the president also gave them an “additional instruction” which he did not elaborate.

Among those they planned to install, Manalo further said, were surface-to-surface missile and surface-to-air missile systems but that would all depend on the result of their ongoing study.
http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/nation/42625-arrival-of-navy-s-new-cutter-stalled