New 81mm Mortars and UAV Confirmed with the Philippine Army

The 78th Anniversary and Thanksgiving celebrations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) last December 20, 2013 confirmed 2 new systems with the Philippine Army (PA). These are the newly acquired 81mm Mortars and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Both projects were realized under the AFP Modernization Program and were quietly commissioned in the past.

President Aquino inspecting the new equipment of the AFP, which includes the Philippine Army's 81mm mortars & Unmanned Aerial Systems. Also displayed by the PA are its Garmin handheld GPS and M4 rifles.
Photo taken from GMA News website.

MaxDefense will discuss the 2 projects in this blog:

1. New M69B 81mm Mortar
The Department of National Defense (DND)_released an Invitation to Bid on November 2010, for a new project called 81mm Mortar Acquisition Project with project number AFPMP-G-PA-10-004. This project involves the acquisition of 100 new 81mm mortars, and 2,000 rounds of 81mm mortar ammunition. The Approved Budget for the Contract (ABC) of this project is Php 190,320,000.00, with the mortar worth Php 170,320,000 while the ammunition is worth Php 20,000,000.00.

The M69B 81mm mortars displayed during the AFP's 78th Anniversary.
Photo taken from Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas' Facebook page.

Only 1 company, a joint venture of Joavi Philippines Corp. and Israeli firm Talon Secuirty Consulting and Trade Ltd. (Talon) submitted a bid worth Php 189,500,000.00. Interesting is the background of Talon which was also involved in a controversial deal for mortar ammunition with the AFP in 2009, which they were cleared later on. They were also involved in a controversial arms trade in Iraq by being the agent of defense companies in Serbia and Montenegro. This is probably the connection that was also used in winning the 81mm Mortar Acquistion Project, wherein the joint venture of Joavi and Talon offered the M69B from Serbia.

The M69B mortar during tests prior to delivery.
Photo taken from the PARDC Facebook page.

The Yugoslavian M69 was originally designed as an 82mm mortar for the Yugoslav People's Army. Upon the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 90s, most of the country's former states like Serbia and Bosnia brought with them the industry, technical know-how, and skill to make arms and weaponry. With the democratization of these former Yugoslav states, arms standardization slowly leaned towards NATO's own standard, which eventually affected the production of the M69 mortar. An 81mm NATO-compatible version was built, designated as M69B, which is the same model offered to the Philippine Army. 

The original M69 mortar uses a 82mm caliber, non-NATO compliant version. A NATO-compatible version, the M69B, is the model sold to the Philippine Army.
Photo taken from Krusik Holdings Corp. website.

According to media reports, the mortars were supplied by a Serbian company to the Joavi-Talon joint venture. MaxDefense also initially taught it was Serbian, being the dominant Yugoslav state and home to most of the former Yugoslavia's defense manufacturing sector. But a MaxDefense source involved in the actual transaction and testing of the mortars confirmed that the mortars were actually made by a Bosnian company, BNT-Tvornica Masina i Hidraulike, d.d (BNT-TMiH), based in Novi Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This company actually made the mortar's major components like the barrel, breech, breech block and the undercarriage, and also make mortar and artillery components for other major manufacturers from other Western countries. This company is also the manufacturer of the 155mm howitzer being offered by Joavi Philippines to the DND as part of the 155mm Howitzer Acquisition Project previously discussed in an earlier MaxDefense blog. In turn, this company's products were marketed internationally by a Serbian defense marketing agent which has the connections to the Israeli company. So to those asking, that was the reason why these mortars are actually Bosnian.

The M69B is among the products produced by Bosnian company BNT-TMiH.
Photo taken from BNT-TMiH company website.

Meanwhile, the M72 81mm mortar High Explosive (HE) ammunition are made in Serbia. 

The 81mm Mortar Acquisition Project suffered a setback in for more than a year until the project was again continued, with the DND signing a contract with the Joavi-Talon joint venture for the delivery of 100 units of M69B 81mm mortars. Field testing of the mortars and ammunition was done at Crow Valley, Tarlac on June 2013. According to the Philippine Army's spokesman, all have been delivered and were distributed to all infantry divisions..




2. Philippine Army Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)
Another item displayed in the anniversary celebrations are the Philippine Army's Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), which are actually small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) developed by the Philippine Army Research and Development Center. (PARDC).

The Philippine Army's UAS displayed during the AFP's 78th Anniversary celebrations.
Photo taken from Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas' Facebook page.

Although there is little information about these UAS, the PA claims that the Raptor and Knight Falcon (as they are called) UAS are capable of providing real time imagery and video feed from a distance of 3km to 7km, and has an endurance of 3 hours. According to the PA, these UAS will complements their existing Human Intelligence (HUMINT) and Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) capabilities, and can also be used in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations. 

MaxDefense previously posted a photo of the Raptor in action during the Zamboanga City crisis last September, 2013. The army claims that this is the first time they actually used the UAS in action.

From a simple look at the display, it appears that the drones look like commercial-designed models, specifically the Skywalker remote control aircraft used by hobbyists and commercial UAV operators. It is a simple and sturdy design, probably the reason why the PARDC chose this specific model as a platform for the army's UAS. The army quotes the Raptor at Php 150,000.00 each, while the Knight Falcon, although it looks similar to the Raptor, costs higher at Php 300,000.00. This is cheap compared to most military UAV systems used by other countries. Reportedly another larger, more advanced version is being developed and may cost at Php 1.5 million.

According to the Philippine Army, news reports and the Philippine Drones blog, the drones are said to carry a 12 megapixel camera capable of snapshots and video, and weighs at around 2.1 kilograms. It has a wingspan of 178 centimeters (1.78 meters) and can fly at an altitude of 1,000 feet. It's propulsion is an electric brush-less motor powered by lithium-polymer battery packs. Surprisingly, the entire autopilot system is probably Chinese-made, with a FeiyuTech UAV GPS capable autopilot system with radio datalink, ground station control software is FYGCS by Feiyu Electronics running on Windows-7, and a video link using FeiyuTech Hornet on screen display.

The UAS' ground station and autopilot program displayed during the AFP's 78th Anniversary celebrations.
Photo taken from Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas' Facebook page.

Both the army's mortar and UAS acquisitions are very important, as it improves the overall combat capability of the organization. MaxDefense believes that these are initial acquisitions, and follow-on orders or development may follow later on upon availability of more funds from the national government (as in the case of the UAS, it's a project that is continuously improving). 

The appearance of these items in the PA's capability list only shows that the modernization program is moving without the public knowing too much. It proves that modernization programs not being reported publicly does not mean there's no movement on the program at all.