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| The BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15), the Philippine Navy's flagship. The Navy is planning to have Mk.38 Mod.2 secondary 25mm autocannons fitted on the ship soon. |
Below are photos he took recently, and although the dry dock is far from his point of view, it is very obvious that the ship inside the dry dock is indeed a Gregorio del Pilar-class / Hamilton-class ship. To the untrained eyes, the double mast can be clearly seen on the first photo.
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| Both photos taken recently were taken at Subic Freeport. Although very small, it shows the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15) dry docked. Photo taken and shared by one of MaxDefense readers. |
Several months ago (last year), MaxDefense posted a news article from PTV-4 and Philippine News Agency (PNA) regarding the BRP Ramon Alcaraz and its new Mk.38 Mod.2 25mm remote weapons station. In that article, it confirmed that the BRP Gregorio del Pilar was scheduled for dry docking betweem February and June of 2015. This might be the scheduled dry docking indicated in the said news report. It is also impossible for its sistership, the BRP Ramon Alcaraz, to be dry docked this time as it just recently had its turn late last year.
The interesting part is that the report confirmed that the BRP Gregorio del Pilar is also scheduled to have Mk.38 Mod.2 25mm RWS installed during its dry docking. Originally, reports surfacing about the Philippine Navy acquiring Mk.38 Mod.2 guns from BAE was only for 2 units. So far, 2 units were already installed on the BRP Ramon Alcaraz last year.
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| The BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16) already got its Mk.38 Mod.2 guns last year, and both guns were visible during its port visit to Cebu early this year. Photo above taken from Timawa.net, photo below taken by an anonymous MaxDefense reader. |
So did the Philippine Navy receive 2 more Mk.38 Mod.2 guns from the US? If yes, are the guns being installed on the PN's flagship now?
Only time will tell. It is expected that the PN will be bringing out the ship to the public again once it goes back to sea. And by then we can confirm 100% if such upgrade is indeed made on the ship.
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UPDATES:
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May 11, 2015:
The Philippine News Agency released an updated, as reported here by PTV News, confirming the undocking of BRP Gregorio del Pilar within this week. But it did not confirm the installation of any new system to the ship other than "preserve hull condition and servicing of machineries" which is typical to any drydocking activity.
MaxDefense will wait for any new information or photos after the drydocking which will confirm if there are anything new on the ship or not.
