THE delivery of the Philippines’ first two missile-armed frigates capable of engaging surface, subsurface and air threats is still on track, acting Philippine Navy Chief Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad said late Wednesday.
“The frigate [project] has not been delayed. It is continuing and the delivery time is still the same [first quarter of 2020] and we are going to process that,” he said.
The Defense Department and Hyundai Heavy Industries signed an P18-billion contract for two frigates including its weapon systems and munition on Oct. 24, 2016.
But Empedrad said the frigate program still had many challenges to hurdle before being completed.
Some of the issues include how to prepare and train Navy personnel to man and operate the modern ships, where to dock them and where to source the missiles and torpedoes that are the frigates’ main armaments, aside from its main guns and secondary gunnery systems.
Empedrad said determining where to acquire the weapons was a big challenge as the torpedoes alone took two years to manufacture.
“So we have to process that,” he said.
Empedrad expressed his thanks to President Rodrigo Duterte for naming him acting Navy chief following the relief of Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana cited loss of trust and confidence in his integrity and leadership.
This was brought about by the alleged fixation of Mercado on one company to supply the combat management system on the country’s frigate project.
The CMS is the system that handles the weapons, sensors and other equipment related to combat.
The bickering on what particular CMS manufacturer to tap had delayed the frigate project by some four months, Lorenzana said earlier.
Empedrad said he would be doing his best to keep the projects of the Navy moving forward.