Air Surveillance Radar Phase 2 Acquisition Project (Horizon 2) of the Philippine Air Force

To further improve the country's ability to detect aircraft and aerial domain and situation awareness of the Philippine Air Force (PAF), the service has requested for the acquisition of additional air surveillance radar systems to cover more areas of the Philippines.

This allowed the PAF to start the Air Surveillance Radar (Phase 2) Acquisition Project, which is covered under the Priority Projects of the Horizon 2 phase of the Revised AFP Modernization Program. 

Overview:

The goal is to fill in gaps in the PAF's capability to detect aerial activities in the northeastern, eastern, southeastern, central, and southern parts of the country.

Currently the PAF has 3 new air surveillance radars acquired during the Horizon 1 phase under the Air Surveillance Radar (Phase 1) acquisition project, covering mostly the western seaboard of the country facing the West Philippine Sea, and partially covering the southwestern areas near the border with Sabah. The radars, IAI Elta Systems ELM-2288ER AD-STAR Extended Range air surveillance and air defense radar systems acquired from Israel under the Horizon 1 phase, are currently installed in the following locations:

* Paredes Air Station, Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte

* Gozar Air Station, Lubang Island, Occidental Mindoro

* Mount Salakot Air Station, Palawan

In addition, if our sources are right, the PAF still uses the old Bendix AN/FPS-20 location finding radar and General Electric AN/FPS-6 long range height finding radar in Wallace Air Station in San Fernando, La Union.

These radars were designed to have partial overlapping cover of almost the entire Western Philippines including some parts of the country's EEZ in the West Philippine Sea, while also having coverage of areas near the border with Sabah.

The current Phase 2 project will cover more locations that are currently not covered by the Phase 1 or previously existing radar systems, with the following locations:

* Balabac Island, Palawan

* Sta. Ana, Cagayan

* Paranal Air Station, Panganiban, Camarines Norte

* Balut Island, Saranggani

* Hill 900B, Zamboanga

Paranal Air Station as it looks in the 1960s. Photo taken from Lt.Col. Francis Karen Neri's Facebook page.

Project Summary:

Air Surveillance Radar (Phase 2) Acquisition Project

Note: Edited as of 26 July 2019:

* End User: Philippine Air Force (580th Aircraft Control and Warning Wing)

* Quantity: 
   • Original: 3 Fixed Radars, 2 Mobile Radars
   • Revised: 3 Fixed Radars, 1 Mobile Radar

* Modernization Phase: Horizon 2 Phase of RAFPMP

* Project ABC: Php 5,500,000,000.00

* Acquisition Mode: Government-to-Government with still unknown country

* Funding Source: BCDA Income Remittances

* SARO Release: TBA

* Winning Proponent: TBA

* Product for Delivery: TBA

* Contract Price: TBA

* First post by MaxDefense: 01 October 2018

* MaxDefense Searching Hashtag: #PAFASRPhase2Acquisition and/or #PAFASRAcquisition

* Project Status: pre-procurement phase ongoing. Selection not finalized, although signs show it possibly awarded to Mitsubishi Electric.

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U P D A T E S:
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14 June 2019:

MaxDefense received confirmation from a source that the Philippine Air Force and the Department of National Defense has took notice of our previous blog entry on the issues surrounding the Air Surveillance Radar Phase 2 Acquisition Project.

Apparently the documents submitted bythe proponents were re-reviewed again to see if they misinterpreted the submission made by IAI Elta of Israel.

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26 July 2019:

MaxDefense received confirmation from the a Cabinet member of the Duterte administration that Malacanang already released a memorandum approving the amendments made by the DND on the quantity of radars to be acquired under the Air Surveillance Radar (Phase 2) Acquisition Project.

The amendment changed the requirements from 5 radar units to just 4 units. 

So far only 1 company offered 4 radar units for the Php5.5 billion project - Japan's Mitsubishi Electric. This means that the possibility of Mitsubishi bagging the project with their J/FPS-3 radar is highly probable.

Now the question is, since the PAF originally asked for 5 radars but will only be getting 4, it means that there would be a need for the PAF to revise its radar location plan, or it will have a gap in the radar coverage.

It also remains to be seen if the PAF will pursue the acquisition of 1 or more radars to fill in the gap as part of the 2nd List of Horizon 2, or under the Horizon 3 phase.

Looks like its the J/FPS-3 afterall, and only 4 radars will be delivered instead of 5. 

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First edit and release: 14 June 2019.
Copyright MaxDefense Philippines.