MANILA (PNA) -- The letter of credit (LOC) for the country's first two missile-firing frigates, whose contract was won by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), is now being finalized, Philippine Navy (PN) flag-officer-in-command, Vice Adm. Roland Joseph Mercado has said.
"As far as I know, they are now finalizing the terms in the LOC, for the frigate project. That's the only update I could give for now," he said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
An LOC is a letter from a bank guaranteeing that a buyer's payment to a seller will be received on time and for the correct amount. In case the buyer is unable to make payment for the purchase, the bank will be required to cover the full or remaining amount of the purchase.
Mercado is the same officer who headed the technical working group that came up with the specifications of the country's first-ever missile-capable frigates.
On Oct. 24, National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana formally inked the contract for the Frigate Acquisition Program, together with officials and delegates from South Korea's HHI. The signing ceremony took place at the PN's headquarters in Naval Station Andrada, Roxas Blvd., Manila.
The project involves the construction and delivery of two missile-firing frigates to the PN.
The signing of the contract signals the start of the construction and is the culmination of the long and tedious procurement process for the project.
As background, the Notice of Award was approved, issued and was duly conformed by HHI on Sept. 13 with the amount of USD336,912,000 or PHP15,744,571,584.
The project is worth PHP16 billion with another PHP2 billion allocated for the acquisition of assorted weapon systems and munitions.
(PNA)
congrats again for PN. I hope this modern design ship will be built right on schedule.
BalasHapusAfter seen that pic i wonder why they need 2 anti-aircraft weapons system, vls and vshorad launchers?
vshorad is a stop gap while waiting for the vls launch missile being purchase in the future.upon delivery, the ship will only be equip with vshorad.
Hapus@luqman k: ah u mean "Fitted for But Not With". ok let see 4 years onward, when this ship ready to sail and we'll see the final design.
Hapuscorrect. its a huge step for the philippine navy but not a good decision in my opinion. if it was me, i would buy more corvettes instead of two corvette armed frigate. first of all, the pn lack modern hulls and buying two frigate will not help them solve the shortage problem. of course a corvette will not be as good as a frigate but the new frigate is armed with corvette level armament(4 ssm,torpedo tube and vshorad). with the amount they paid for the frigate, they could buy 5-6 corvette from korea. 6 fully armed corvette is better than two corvette armed frigate. just my 2 cent.
HapusNice, mr.President should appoint you as his military advisor..lol
Hapusnahhh this is just what my expert friend who work in military industry, told me.
HapusAs what Luqman said the VSHORAD is just a stop-gap measure until the VLS is purchased and installed. You wouldn't want a warship without at least a minimal air defense.
Hapus