Posted on 10/20/2018 8:39:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The air force has been looking for more than a decade for aircraft to replace its US-made F5A/B jet interceptors that retired in 2005
The Philippine government is likely to buy Swedish-made Gripen multirole supersonic fighters for its air force, the Philippine News Agency reports.
Apart from being cheaper to purchase and less expensive to maintain, Gripen has also proved to be an excellent fighter aircraft, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told the news agency in an exclusive interview this week.
The Philippine Air Force has been looking for more than a decade for what aircraft it would buy to replace its US-made F5A/B jet interceptors that retired in 2005 because of old age and lack of spare parts. Since the F-5s were put out of service, the Philippine Air Force has had no multirole jet fighters and although it has bought a dozen F-50 jets from South Korea, the capability of those planes is limited compared with the Gripen.
If the deal goes through, the Philippines would be the second Southeast Asian country to acquire Gripens....
(Excerpt) Read more at atimes.com ...
Good for them
Who are their natural enemies?
China?
Not sure.
The Philippines has been in this position before, several times in fact. And then they backed out of the whole thing.
TBD if this actually happens.
The Philippines needs a comprehensive air defense system, not just a squadron or two of interceptors.
China
They need to find something like minerals that’ll pay for an expensive system, and more food for their people.
Thanks. Figured.
What is the strategy to take when your enemy is VASTLY superior militarily?
Are they buying these so at least China will know it will feel a sting if they did indeed attack?
Not force on force.
The Vietcong did pretty well against a vastly superior force, TWICE!
Perhaps The Philippines could hire a (now capitalist) Vietcong cadre?
Point taken.
Our guys did pretty well against the British some several hundreds of years ago!!
Thank goodness they weren’t all like me.
First cannon ball that went past my head and I would have run straight home, even if it was 200 miles away!!!
Though I guess i would have been shot for desertion.
China right now
Possibly Muslim Malaysia or Indonesia
What a shame that the Philippines Air Force could not have inherited some of our old F-4 Phantoms. We know some RP Air Force pilots and have discussed this. They told me that the training and maintenance would have been a nightmare. Yes, true. Just saying, they have needed more advanced aircraft.
Sort of, yes.
As it is Chinese naval strike aircraft have free reign over the archipelago. With some interceptors this could be made more dangerous, but the Filipinos will still be outnumbered, in terms of aircraft China can put over PI airspace, by 20 to one at least.
And then there is the Chinese navy. These at least give the PI a chance to threaten them, if the Filipinos spring for ASM munitions.
No likely.
Much more likely the Indos join an anti Chinese alliance.
Great post.
Thanks
I guess showing that you willing to fight back makes your friends more willing to help if all heck breaks loose.
There wont be a Vietnam scenario.
Look at a map. Any great power that controls the sea and sky over the Philippines can starve the whole country into submission. The Filipinos can head to the hills, yes? No doubt they have lots of men available to fight. But who will feed them, or their families, once the transport systems are cut?
You have no idea how vulnerable the place is to blockades, and how fragile the systems are that keep them alive. Petroleum, coal, electricity, rice, corn, fertilizer - these have limited routes, limited ports, limited sources, etc. and etc. All easy to block or destroy.
It won’t be precisely a repeat of The French or us in Vietnam. Perhaps more an Afghanistan?
Afghanistan is in many ways in a much worse tactical position than The Philippines.
Landlocked, few exploited resources, poor soil, mostly desert and little arable land.
Defeated the British, and the Russians, and we have no clear path to victory there.
Every now and then I see a couple of their Korean built FA-50s flying around my house here in the jungle.
I’ve been tempted to stomp out a ‘crop circle’ that reads:
“Walung moslem dito”
Afghanistan is much more robust, as far as population survival goes. It can’t be starved from the air.
The Philippines has 100 million people, the vast majority of which are not subsistence farmers. And in spite of intense land use the country doesnt feed itself. They also depend on most of their food coming from certain places, such as Luzons Central Plain. And then there are imports, which include a vast amount of fertilizer. And then there is the fuel needed to move that food, which is all imported. All that comes by ship, and all bulk transport within the country likewise goes by ship.
Sink or blockade the ships, blow up the bridges and highway overpasses across the Candaba swamps, cutting off the Central valley, add a few other vulnerable facilities, etc., and everything will come to a halt, and island after island will starve. Manila will starve. And unlike Afghanistan the people cant flee - there is nowhere to go, without ships.
Really, you have to look at a map.
The Philippine resistance in WWII tied down 30 divisions of Japanese troops. I understand that later in the war, the Japanese were so desperate for troops to defend the home islands that they were considering pulling out of the Philippines unilaterally.
I’ve had the honor of meeting WWII Philippine vets and they were some tough hombres.
In WW2 most Filipino deaths, 1 million or so, were the result of starvation and malnutrition, due to the combination of Japanese looting, lack of fuel and lack of interisland shipping (sunk or taken by the Japs). They had the same problems of food distribution being dependent on fragile systems. But, at least, at the time, much more of the population were farmers living on the land, capable of providing for themselves, and not so vulnerable to system breakdown. And the population was 17% of the present.
Under modern conditions, the Philippine population at risk of famine in such a war, through just such measures as the Japs imposed in 1942, is vast, dozens of millions, 50 million, or more. Its a potential disaster on a scale thats difficult to imagine. This is a consideration not mentioned in public commentary but very well understood.
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