Defense of the Republic of the Philippines

He must mean some other outfit. Long Mountain Outfitters, which did provide some foreign government and agency training, went belly up somewhere in 2014-2015. Dan and Deb Shea, the owners, restarted their business as "Gun Mountain" but don't appear to have a compelling interest in sales and service of "Destructive Weapons and AOW" of which RPGs would qualify as.

The Interoperability of assets aside, the division, operation and deployment of said assets by mission is what the real challenge is. If PCG is expected to deliver both SOLAS and 1st line detection/identification by virtue of being out there longer and more often than Navy assets, then they are woefully underequipped. From a COIN/LEO perspective, they'll get along just fine for now, but without additional enhancements to sensor and weapons fits, then all they can do is serve as a trip-wire function in higher intensity OOTW. Which brings us back to the classic white-gray dilemma. When to use one versus the other? It's the intermixed threat environment - especially in the WPS - militarized outposts fronted by Maritime Militia, then the Philippines is simply playing to the strengths of the nominal opponent. The lack of assets of either paint scheme is already a show-stopper to Presence Operations. So the answer might be to just start operating any asset as both SOLAS and Defense. IOW, don't distinguish. Teach the Navy to conduct LEO operations. Beef up the CG to have a more realistic defense capability beyond trip-wire. Have both forces train together more - so operating conditions, doctrine and TTP are exchanged, understood and practiced. The Philippines can't afford to build out even a tenth of the Fleet neccessary to confront symmetrically, so the only option is to stop looking at them as purely Navy or purely CG. They are Maritime Assets, period. Equip them as best possible and preferably identically, so that when another crisis point emerges, you don't care who is the closest, you just need a better and more effective response.

ROKS Chungju Flight III ASW is offered in place of ROKS Mokpo.

http://maxdefense.blogspot.com/2017/04/finally-philippine-navy-is-set-to.html

After conducting of the Joint Visual Inspection by the Philippine Navy, spearheaded by the Offshore Patrol Force's commanding officer himself, the Philippine Navy decided to finally accept the offer made by the South Korean government to transfer the Pohang-class Flight III anti-submarine corvette. It appears that only 1 ship was offered by the South Korean government, while the other decommissioned Flight III ships will be going to 2 other countries, among them is neighbouring Vietnam.

The ship is expected to be assigned with the Offshore Combat Force (OCF) of the Philippine Fleet.

The ship, reported to be the former ROKS Chungju (PCC-762), was built by Korea Tacoma Shipyard, was commissioned with the Republic of Korea Navy in 1987, and was decommissioned in December 2016. Based on this, the ship is around 30 years old, or at least 20 years younger than the Hamilton-class cutters acquired by the Philippine Navy from the US Coast Guard.

It is considered a Flight III sub-class of the Pohang-class combat corvette, which is configured for anti-submarine warfare. It is equipped with two Oto Melara 76mm Compact naval guns, two Breda twin 40mm/70 naval guns, two Mk. 32 triple torpedo tubes, and two Mk.9 depth charge racks. It was previously fitted with Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers, and while they are not included in the transfer, the ship won't need too much adjustments for launchers to be re-installed again.

The ship's sensors suite include Raytheon AN/SPS-64 radar, Signaal WM-28 Fire Control system, and a Raytheon AN/SQS-58 hull mounted sonar.

This is the bulk of the much pared-down H2 request for the PN. PN still mulling whether they pursue new-build OPVs in conjunction with EDA (later Flight 2 Pohangs vs. Portuguese Coutinhos) which gets them hulls sooner to replace the WW2 ships, or whether they'll roll the dice entirely on a bulk contract of the OPVs. Other than that, no new developments.

Are we now seeing 6 FA50s as the direct replacement for the 6 CAS aircraft?

Seems that way. But what is the status of the KAI T-50 production line after they fulfill the RTAF order? I don't know of any customers beyond that. I believe the RoKAF order is complete, and since they're able to show that they can punch out FA-50s on more than two a quarter pace, that's not a lot of time to negotiate more.

I wonder if they're operating with Tarlac. Esp. the armed ones.

The Iraqi order was the bottleneck, but that finally cleared with last deliveries earlier this month.There may also be an incentive tied to the Thai order to deliver early, but that's just a guess.

The line then goes idle. Idle lines don't stay open very long. No new clients have been announced. If the PAF wants 24-36 more, they need to start negotiations real soon. Since it took a G2G to deliver this 12, one wonders what kind of mid-level miracle will it take to get to a 24 plane order timely?

Thanks. As I mentioned previously, sanctions can and will occur at a agency level. It remains to be seen what the Trump Administration's thresholds will be like. Despite the initial media reports following Oplan Tokhang, the US didn't cancel the SIG-Sauer sale. But we have a new Administration on the ground.