AFP to acquire Shoulder-Fired Anti-Drone Directional Jammers from Singapore

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be getting Anti-Drone Directional Jammers from Singapore, as the tender process for the AFP's Shoulder-Fired Direction Jammer Acquisition Project was completed after a successful public bidding.

The project is part of of the Horizon 2 phase of Revised AFP Modernization Program covering the years 2019 to 2023. 

The Orion Anti-Drone system is among those offered for the AFP's Shoulder-Fired Directional Jammer requirement.  Photo taken from TRD Consulting's website.

Overview:

The AFP included the requirement to acquire Shoulder-Fired Directional Jammers as part of the Horizon 2 phase of the RAFPMP after the experiences it gained during the Marawi City crisis in 2017. 

Back then, the ISIS-inspired Maute Group terrorists used commercial off-the-shelf quadcopter drones to survey the battlefield, while also gathering intelligence on location of government forces that are after them.

This prompted the AFP to begin the acquisition of a limited number of anti-drone jammers that could help forces take down enemy drones, or even protect installations from drones.

A portion of the Invitation to Bid (ITB) for the project.

In this instance, the AFP required the acquisition of 9 sets of directional jammers, enough to equip 9 teams of specialized personnel whose mission is to hunt or defend against enemy drones. The equipment as per the project's Schedule of Requirements FOR EACH SET are as follows:

A. Shoulder Fired Directional Jammers:
* 2 nos. of Jammer Modules (rifle and manpack)
* 4 nos. of Jammer Module Batteries

A sample of a rifle-type jammer and module.

B. Vehicular Platform:
* 2 nos. 145cc Sports Motorcycle

C. Soldier Protection System:
* 2 pairs Ballistic Plate Level IV
* 2 nos. Plate Carrier
* 2 nos. FAST Ballistic Helmets, Level IIIA Protection
* 2 pairs Elbow Pads
* 2 pairs Knee Pads

D. Initial Integrated Logistics Support
* 2 sets of Jammer Tool Sets / Basic Repair Sets

E. Manuals:
* 2 nos. Operator's Manual
* 2 nos. Parts Catalog

F. Training
* Operators Maintenance Training
  

The Jammers will have the capability to jam GPS (US standard), GLONASS (Russian standard), Galileo L1 (European Union standard), and BeiDou B1 systems (Chinese standard) of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and has the modes to either drive out or force land drones. 

Currently, the Presidential Security Group (PSG) which has AFP officers and personnel as its members, also operate rifle-type anti-drone directional jammers, although this new acquisition by the AFP is a more effective variant.

The Presidential Security Group (PSG) first showed this rifle-type directional jammer to the public in early 2018. The model appears to be a Chinese-made Hikvision UAV-D04JA jammer, which has been with the PSG for sometime. Photo shared exclusively to MaxDefense by one of our community member.

Bidding Outcome:

The project was approved by the DND via an Acquisition Decision Memorandum (ADM) dated 01 August 2018 to be procured Direct Contracting mode. But this mode of procurement was changed on 05 November 2018 to Public Bidding.

The project underwent four attempts before the tender became successful. The bid submission deadline and opening dates of the bidding attempts were on 25 October 2018, 29 November 2018, 15 January 2019, and 26 February 2019.

For the 4th attempt, only two bidders submitted their bids:

* Joint Venture of Southcoast Marketing Inc (Filipino company), and TRD Consulting Pte Ltd (Singapore);

* Joint Venture of Safer PH Innovations Inc. (Filipino) and NT Service UAB.


Of the two, only the Joint Venture of Southcoast Marketing Inc and TRD Consulting Pte Ltd was declared legible and the Single Calculated Bidder (SCB) with a bid amount of Php32,446,507.50.

According to a MaxDefense source from the AFP, the directional jammer offered by the winning bidder was the Singaporean-made Orion 7 MP rifle-type directional jammer.

The Joint Venture underwent and passed the Post Qualification Inspection, and was given the Notice of Award (NOA) from the DND on 10 May 2019. While there is no publicly available document, MaxDefense believes that a contract should have been signed before we wrote this blog entry.

For those who may have not noticed, TRD Consulting Pte Ltd has been actively marketing their Orion series of anti-drone jammers, and was also present during the ADAS 2018 defense exhibition in Manila last September 2018. Even the official media partner of ADAS 2018, Shephard Media did an exclusive on the Orion anti-drone system.

The Orion anti-drone system was actually demonstrated and discussed during last year's ADAS 2018 defense exhibition in Manila, with TRD Consulting Pte Ltd also present in the said exhibition. Photo taken from TRD Consulting's FB page.

Being a small project that is probably already manufactured, the winning proponent is required to deliver within 120 days (4 months) from receiving the Notice to Proceed (NTP). So far no word has reached MaxDefense if the joint venture already got their NTP from the DND.

It remains to be seen now how the AFP will manage this project, and how good will the JV of Southcoast Marketing and TRD Consulting Ltd. be in terms of cost, performance, robustness, reliability and compatibility with our AFP's existing electronics systems.

It also remains to be seen which unit of the AFP will be receiving these jammers and their respective equipment. Based on the need for motorcycles, it means the troops handling these jammers may need to move quickly and without too much issue on logistics.

Summary:

Shoulder-Fired Directional Jammer Acquisition Project

* End User: Armed Forces of the Philippines (no specific unit mentioned yet)

* Quantity: 9 sets (with 18 jammers)

* Modernization Phase: Horizon 2 Phase of RAFPMP

* Project ABC: Php33,750,000.00

* Acquisition Mode: Public Bidding

* SARO Release: TBA

* Winning Proponent: JV of Southcoast Marketing Inc. and TRD Consulting Pte Ltd.

* Product for Delivery: Orion family of Rifle-type Directional Jammers
* Contract Price: Php32,446,507.50

* First post by MaxDefense: 03 October 2018

* MaxDefense Searching Hashtag: #AFPDirectionalJammerAcquisition

* Status: Notice of Award released, awaiting confirmation of Contract Signing and release of Notice to Proceed.

The Orion series of anti-drone equipment is also being marketed lately to Thailand.

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===============First edit and release: 05 June 2019
Copyright MaxDefense Philippines