OPINION | Air Force housecleaning

March 8, 2025 , 04:28 PM

By Manny Mogato

(March 8, 2025) – The Philippines needs to upgrade its air defense capability to protect its airspace against unwanted intrusions and catch up with its Southeast Asia peers.

While its neighbors were already operating American F-16s, F-15s, or Russian Su-22 Sukhois, the Philippines only has South Korean FA-50 light fighters, originally designed as trainer jets.

The Philippines also has limited air defense radars in detecting, monitoring, and tracking foreign planes entering the country’s airspace.

It cannot even stop these aircraft because the Philippine Air Force (PAF) has no real multi-role fighters to interdict and turn back much faster intruding aircraft.

In the 1960s, the PAF operated F-5s but the remaining 10 aircraft were retired in 2005. When the United States (US) transferred the first 20 F-5s in 1965, the Philippines was the envy of many countries in the region.

Then, in the 1970s, Manila acquired the F-8 Crusaders but stopped operating them in 1988.

From the 1990s until 2015, the Philippines never invested in multi-role fighters and relied on its old F-5s and trainer jets, like the AS-211.

When the US left in 1992, the Philippines was left with no fighters and plenty of Vietnam War-vintage UH-1 helicopters, which were used to fight insurgencies.

Manila was left virtually “naked” without the US security umbrella after November 1992.

It re-entered the jet age in 2015 after the administration of the late former president Noynoy Aquino III signed an P18 billion deal with South Korea for 12 FA-50s.

In 2023, Pres. Bongbong Marcos Jr. approved a plan to acquire at least four squadrons of multi-role fighters as an effective deterrence to China’s increasing activities in the volatile Indo-Pacific region.

It also planned to upgrade and install more fixed air defense and surveillance radars to cover the entire archipelago. The existing five radars, three ELM-2288ER from Israel and two MELCO J/TPS-P14ME radars from Japan were inadequate to protect the country.

This surveillance equipment should be integrated with the air defense system, which includes several ground-based air defense missiles, a secure communications network, and squadrons of supersonic fifth-generation fighters.

But before the Philippines begins splurging on fighters, radars, and missiles, it has some house cleaning and fixing structural defects on procurement, maintenance, and training in the PAF.

Before an FA-50 light fighter crashed early this month in Bukidnon, killing two pilots, the Air Force was operating only four aircraft due to lack of spare parts.

The current problem of sustaining fighter aircraft began in 2015. The Aquino administration acquired only the platform without the necessary training and spare parts.

Unlike the Americans, when it offered to sell the F16 for $2.4 billion in 2021, the squadron of multi-role fighters would include extra engines, spare parts, training, and a five-year maintenance deal.

The Philippines would acquire cheaper aircraft outside the US but it did not include a complete after-sales package. In the end, it would be more expensive than getting the US aircraft.

Thus, in the Philippines’ case, it was forced to wait for available spare parts until the contract was signed in 2024, forcing it to ground more than half of the FA-50 fleet.

Future fighter acquisition should not be done on a piecemeal basis. It would avoid maintenance problems for the PAF.

But the most important is pilot training to upgrade skills and raise the level of proficiency of pilots.

The lack of planes could seriously hamper pilot training on tactics, procedures, and techniques.

The Air Force must have more frequent training flights and drills to raise pilots’ competency and proficiency.

The Philippines must also invest in acquiring trainer aircraft and free other aircraft for external defense missions, including maritime patrols and close-air and ground support operations.

Southeast Asian neighbors had invested in different trainer aircraft, including South Korean FA-50, Czech L-39-NG, Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master, and British Hawk 109.

The Philippines should acquire a squadron of FA-50 or the Czech L-39NG to begin training pilots for advanced multi-role fighters, like F16 or JAS39 Gripen.

The defense and military leadership, including the Philippine Air Force, should also insulate themselves from politics in the procurement of equipment for external defense posture, minimizing corruption and putting into order military procurement procedures and avoiding the common problem it currently faces.

The views expressed by the columnist do not necessarily reflect that of the media organization.

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