Five Type Warplanes were Expected to be Delivered within Two Years
Five type aircraft : attack aircraft, lead-in fighter-trainers, attack
helicopters, light transport and medium transport aircraft were all expected to be
delivered within two years
The Philippines,
which is now embroiled in a territorial dispute with China, is set to acquire new
warplanes in two years to upgrade its poorly-equipped air force, the defence
minister said Friday.
Attack aircraft, lead-in fighter-trainers, attack
helicopters and light and medium transport aircraft were all expected to be
delivered within two years, Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.
Speaking at the 65th anniversary of the Philippine Air
Force, Gazmin said "these aircraft shall once and for all, erase the
ironic and naughty commentary that our present airforce is all air, devoid of
force."
The defence department also plans to sign contracts by July
31 to implement 138 military modernisation projects over the next five years,
he added, without saying how much the contracts would cost or who would supply
such equipment.
The Philippines
has one of the most poorly-equipped militaries in the region, having retired
the last of its fighter jets in 2005.
The weakness of the military was highlighted when the Philippines got into a standoff with China in April over the Scarborough Shoal, an
outcropping of rocks in the South China Sea
that both countries claim as their territory.
China
claims nearly all of the South China Sea, even
waters close to the coasts of neighbouring countries. The Philippines
says the shoal is well within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
The two countries also have wider territorial disputes over
parts of the Spratly islands in the South China Sea
.
Gazmin did not mention the territorial dispute but stressed
that air force personnel were all over the archipelago, including the West
Philippine Sea-- the local term for the South China Sea.
The Philippines
has looked to its main defence ally, the United
States, to help it upgrade its armed forces but President
Benigno Aquino said in an interview in May, that it was looking for aircraft
from outside the US
as well.
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