The Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed a lot of valuable information on the Russian Armed Forces' overall capabilities, considered valuable not just by NATO forces that was formed to counter a theoretical Russian invasion of Western (and Eastern) Europe, but also by the world's militaries, think tanks, defense schools, and analysts in general. Russia has invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Photo credits to Financial Times. No doubt, Russia is winning the war as its forces continue to steam-roll Ukraine by shear firepower. But it has taken terrible tactical losses and strategic ..read more

  The Philippine Navy (PN) has been pursuing the acquisition of new guided-missile Corvettes as it continues to improve its combat capability as part of the service's modernization program. Two new corvettes are eyed under the Corvette Acquisition Project (CAP), as part of the Horizon 2 Priority phase of the Revised AFP Modernization Program (RAFPMP) which covers acquisition projects between 2018 to 2022. Currently, the CAP is delayed based on the Philippine Navy's programming, as they were hoping that a contract would be signed by 2020 to allow the first ship of the class to be deliver ..read more

  The Philippine Coast Guard is expecting good news in the next dew days. Its largest ship acquisition to date, the 94-meter Multi-Role Response Vessels (MRRV) it ordered from Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, will reach an important milestone this week. But before that, our previous report that the new MRRVs are in fact 97 meters long, not 94 meters as suggested during the conceptual and contract signing phases of the project. The first ship of the class, with hull number 9701 (97 meters, hull 01) which is still unnamed yet, is scheduled for launching on Monday, 26 July 2021 at MH ..read more

  Back in October 2014, MaxDefense Philippines wrote a blog entry asking if it was already time for the Philippine Air Force (PAF) to replace its dear SIAI Marchetti AS.211 Warrior advanced jet trainers. "Is it Time to Replace the Philippine Air Force's S-211 Aircraft?" - first posted on 07 October 2014. That time, the AS.211 Warrior was not just the most capable trainer in the PAF, but was also the most capable combat aircraft in the entire PAF fleet, due to the absence of proper multi-role fighters or light combat aircraft, or even a modern close air support aircraft. The PAF's curren ..read more

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) has started to make its final chance to push for the acquisition of new Multi-Role Fighter (MRF) aircraft, as securing funding for modernization projects has reached the final few months. And based on information MaxDefense PH has gathered from sources from the Philippine Air Force and from the defense industry, the Technical Working Group (TWG0 for the Multi-Role Fighter Acquisition Project has revised its recommendation and go with the Saab JAS-39C/D Gripen fighter aircraft from Sweden. This was approved by Philippine Air Force leadership led by PAF Commandin ..read more

The Philippine Coast Guard is a growing organization in terms of manpower, assets and capabilities. And with its growing responsibility and challenges to support in maritime safety and law enforcement, it needs new capabilities. Among those identified to improve its ability to "see" and monitor our country's maritime borders are the need for Coastal Radar Stations, which can detect, observe and monitor the movement of ships several miles away from our coastlines. With this, the Philippine Coast Guard has prioritized the construction of new Radar Stations especially in the southern part of t ..read more

 The Philippine Navy has embarked on the acquisition of a harbor tugboat as well as an ocean-capable tugboat to assist larger naval vessels during entering to and leaving from their designated berthing and anchoring stations, aid vessels in manoeuvring in restricted waterways, and other harbor and towing duties. With the Horizon 2 Priority Projects already approved in 2018, the Philippine Navy has decided to make use of the 2nd List of Horizon 2 phase to include this project. The Harbor and Ocean-Going Tugboats Acquisition Project of the Philippine Navy was born out of need for new tugbo ..read more

Back in March 2021, we mentioned in one of our social media posts  that the Philippine Navy is was offered by the US to transfer ships and boats as part of its Military Assistance to the Philippines.  These offers were among those said to be listed in the US document sent to the Philippine Ambassador to the US Babes Romualdez, which in turn was sent to President Rodrigo Duterte as proof of US commitment to assist the improvement of the Philippines’ defense capabilities. We previously said that we would not provide further details as requested by sources, but we confirmed in our blo ..read more

  Japan is sending its goodwill to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which is unprecedented considering the Japanese government only lifting the ban on transfer of defense equipment to foreign countries lately. The Japanese government has sent over 4 sets of Japan Self Defense Force (JSDF) Lifesaving Systems through Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Philippine government. Apparently, this is the first time Japan is sending defense equipment to other countries through ODA, although the equipment being granted to the Philippines are more related to Search and Rescue (S ..read more

 The Philippine Navy (PN) has been moving away from older, less capable naval assets and has planned to acquire newer, more capable and better performing naval assets for the service to improve its overall capability, make use of new technology to improve its overall performance, while also trying to move away from obsolescence of equipment, technology, and doctrine. Lately, there is a reason for the Philippine Navy to start acquiring additional assets, especially when they can acquired for cheap and would actually be beneficial in maintaining and sustaining one of its most capable asset ..read more