via ABS-CBN News.
MANILA, Philippines - Only one company joined last week's bidding for the purchase of eight brand new amphibious assault vehicles worth P2.5 billion for the Marines.This seems off on so many levels...
South Korean firm Samsung Techwin offered to supply the vehicles for P2.42 billion, lower by P76.5 million than the approved budget.
The Department of National Defense (DND) Bids and Awards Committee has declared the company as the “single calculated bidder” for the project.
However, Samsung Techwin cannot be declared the winning bidder until it hurdles the post-qualification phase to determine whether the supplier is capable of undertaking the project.
If Samsung Techwin wins the bidding, it is required to deliver the vehicles within 910 days upon opening of the letter of credit, which assures the supplier that the government will fulfill its obligations.
The bidding held last May 15 was the second time that the DND tried to look for suppliers for the vehicles.
The first bidding was held last November, but it failed because it did not attract any offer.
At that time, Samsung Techwin bought bid documents but did not submit an offer.
The amphibious assault vehicle acquisition project is one of the items to be bankrolled by the Revised Armed Forces Modernization Program contained in a law signed by President Aquino in 2012. – Alexis Romero
BAE has performed refub work on former USMC AAVs for the Japanese military that brought them back to new condition.
Lockheed Martin Ground is interested in getting a piece of this pie and I'm sure they would have offered a competitive bid.
The same can be said for SAIC, especially in light of them winning part of the bid to do safety upgrades for USMC vehicles.
So why did the Philippines choose to buy what I assume are new vehicles when the Japanese and USMC have shown that surplus refurbished vehicles can still do well in the intended role (I say that tongue in cheek...its the best we have if we don't pick either the Havoc or SuperAV for our new Marine Personnel Carrier)?
The Philippine acquisition system. A mystery wrapped in an enigma.
Solomon,
ReplyDeleteKorea's arm sales to Philippines comes with a government-backed financing package, including this one. That's why.
Japan too wanted to buy KAAV-7 back in 2012, but the deal fell apart because of worsening relations between Japan and Korea. Not able to buy the KAAV-7, Japan turned to refurbinished USMC AAV-7s as they had no choice left. Mitsubishi is supposedly developing a marine assault landing vehicle on private funding right now hoping that the Japanese government would place orders once the prototype is proven.
Somebody convince me that Philippines have any capability or capacity to do anything in any field, especially military. Specifically I doubt that P. has any amphibious assault capability even with new machines.
ReplyDeletethey don't seem to have a plan. they're just buying bits and pieces instead of deciding to develop x capability then y and then z.
Deletedoing it on the cheap i personally focus on making my infantry the best jungle fighters in the Pacific. weapons, 782 gear etc...i'd save mechanization for later. i would invest in either heavy mortars or artillery though.
after that i'd aim at buying a couple of squadrons of cheap multirole fighters. if that means using BAE Hawks in the fighter and attack role then so be it. if it means buying cheap then so be it. but it would be staged.
the Navy would be a bigger ticket item and i'd try and maximize it. shore based anti-ship missiles, patrol vessels and a few AEW planes. then i'd reassess and continue.
The Philippines already ordered two LPDs from Korea earlier this year. You can also expect the ROKMC troops to come to the Philippines and drill with them to show them how to use their new LPDs and KAAV-7s properly.
DeleteKorea and the Philippines are close and getting closer.
DeleteIn addition to the 8 AAVs they also bought 12 FA-50s from Korea. The LPDs however were ordered from Indonesia but are Korean designed.
As far as amphibious capabilities and know-how goes. The Philippines is simply regaining lost capability. They had 35 LSTs in the 1960's to 70's and operated 35 LVT5s and 6s for quite some time before those went out of service and were never replaced until now.