Philippine Army Signs Contract for M113 120mm Mortar Carriers with Elbit Systems

11 Februari 2019

Elbit Systems will supply 15 M113A2 equipped with the Soltam Cardom 120mm mortar system to the Philippine Army (photo : MaxDefense)

Philippine Army proceeds with M113 Mortar Carrier project, signs contract with Elbit for 120mm Self Propelled Mortars

Another milestone has been reached by the Philippines' Department of National Defense (DND), as MaxDefense sources confirmed that the DND just recently signed a contract with Israel's Elbit Systems Land and C4I (Elbit) to implement the Philippine Army's M113 Armored Mortar Carrier acquisition project.

This project is part of the Horizon 2 phase of the Revised AFP Modernization Program, which is the phase covering the years 2018 to 2022.

Based on our records, this project appears to be the first Horizon 2 phase project of the Philippine Army (PA) that reached the contract signing stage, since almost all other projects of the PA are only in the negotiation stage at best, while other are not yet even in the pre-procurement phase.

The Approved Budget for Contract (ABC) approved for the DND and allocated to the Philippine Army for the project as approved as part of the Horizon 2 phase is Php1,094,570,175.00. As of the contract signing, this is equivalent to around US$21 million.

The project is a Government-to-Government (G2G) deal between the Philippines and Israel, with the DND's ad-hoc committee approving the procurement mode in July 2018, and with Israel supporting Elbit Systems Land & C4I as the preferred contractor. Since it is a G2G deal, it is expected that the overall cost of the project is almost equal, or equal to the ABC, as the deal was negotiated based on that amount, without looking too much on the Philippine pesos' exchange rate.

This deal goes to show the strong commitment between the Philippines and Israel to further strengthen its defense relations, as Israel is already among the biggest market for defense and security related products for the Philippine government in the past 5 years.


This project was already in the pipeline for a few years, and was originally proposed for implementation as part of the Philippine Army's 2018 Priority Projects as part of plans to equip the planned Brigade Combat Teams. Although MaxDefense doesn't have the exact dates, it appears that the Senior Leaders of the AFP approved this project only in early 2018.

It is also surprising that this project was able to finalize into a contract before other Philippine Army projects that were in considered priority even before Horizon 2 started in January 2018.

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