US giving Philippines reconnaissance airship to monitor West Philippine Sea
The United States government is providing the Philippines with military aid worth USD42 million to boost the country’s maritime surveillance capabilities in face of West Philippine Sea dispute.
“We will add to its capability to put sensors on ships and put an aerostat blimp (non-rigid airship) in the air to see into the maritime space,” US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
The said military aid was first announced by United States Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations April 8 before starting his Asia-Pacific trip that included travel to Philippines.
Last year the US government announced its five-year Maritime Security Initiative, a commitment to help partner nations like Philippines address common challenges. The initiative has a total budget of US$425-million.
“We’ve just released the first tranche of this money, nearly 80 percent of which is going to the Philippines. There it will help modernize the technology and train staff at the Philippines National Coast Watch Center, enhance an information network to enable the sharing of classified communications between U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii and key Philippines maritime command centers, provide an aerostat reconnaissance platform (airship), and outfit Philippine navy patrol vessels with better sensors so they can see and do more in the region’s waters,” Carter said.
(Update)
Ini kan balon yg pernah lepas trus keliling2 sendiri sampe bikin puluhan penerbangan batal.. masih dipake toh... oh iya, krn kurang reliable utk US akhirnya di pinjemin ke philipina deh ya.
BalasHapusI do think, what you are referring to is the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS colloquially called, Spy Balloon which had a recent mishap wherein the balloon broke free from it tether and crashed. The aerostat that will be given and stationed in the Philippines is just the surveillance model, similar to the one bought by Singapore. The surveillance model is a successful one which are used by the US Customs & Border Protection in the US Mexico since 1983 when they opened the first operation site in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The radar of these balloons could detect any low-flying objects up to a range of 322 kilometers (or 200 miles). As you could see, just one unit of these aerostat placed in a strategic location in the Philippines could greatly assist in the surveillance of illegal Chinese access in our territory.
Hapus