PAF Commander Announces Upcoming Air Assets

03 Juli 2019

Gulfstream G280 aircraft (photo : Gulstream)

The Commanding General Philippine Air Force (CGPAF), Lt.Gen. Rozano Briguez mentioned in his speech during the 72nd Founding Anniversary Celebrations of the PAF the following expected deliveries:

* 1 C-295 Command and Control Aircraft by July 2019
* 1 C-130 Hercules by last quarter 2019
* 4 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles by 2019
* 6 Super Tucanos by February 2020
* 16 Combat Utility Helicopters starting 2020
* 6 NC-212i light lift aircraft starting 2020
* 1 G280 Command and control aircraft by 2020.

1. The C-295 Command and Control Aircraft was the one awarded by DND to Airbus late last year, and was discussed in our resource portal since April 2019.

2. The C-130 Hercules is the same aircraft mentioned by former CGPAF Lt.Gen. Galileo Kintanar last year. This was acquired with assistance by the US government and is a refurbished unit. The PAF has asked for assistance with the US to also replace the C-130H that caught fire early this year, but that remains to be seen if the US will help.

3. The 4 UAVs are the Elbit Hermes 450 MALE UAVs that MaxDefense has reported since last year. Last Monday we posted the photo of 1 of the UAVs in PAF markings. The 4 UAVs constitute 1 whole Hermes 450 UASystem, and was acquired under the Unmanned Aerial Systems acquisition project.

PAF NC-212i (photo : Ryu Guji)

4. The 6 Super Tucanos were the ones under the Horizon 1 Close Air Support Aircraft acquisition project. Previous PAF statements mentioned delivery of 1st batch will be made by November 2019, while the rest by early 2020.

5. The 16 Combat Utility Helicopers are the Sikorsky S-70i Black Hawk that we first reported last March. These were already contracted last April 2019 and NTP released last May.

6. The NC-212i is something new. This is not in the Horizon 2 plan, although it is possible that the PAF decided to convert its Medium Lift Aircraft acquisition into acquiring the 6 smaller NC-212i. It still remains to be seen how much the deal was, since its cheaper to buy 6 NC-212i than 3 C-295W.

7. The Gulfstream G280 is the aircraft selected to fulfill the C2 Jet Aircraft acquisition. This would be a Command and control and VVIP transport of the president to replace the Fokker F28 Fellowship jet. MaxDefense posted about this in our resource portal as early as yesterday. Also, MaxDefense has some concerns since we believe the G280 jet is too small, and the PAF could have acquired a larger business jet like the G500 since the budget is enough for it.

8. The Notice of Award (NOA) for the Ground Based Air Defense Systems (GBADS) Acquisition Project was already released. MaxDefense previously reported that the PAF and DND will award this to Rafael Advance Systems Ltd for the Rafael SPYDER Air Defense System. This is a Horizon 1 project.

(MaxDefense)