19 September 2014
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| A pair of brand new Airbus A400M Transport plane has been offered by the French Government to the Philippines for disaster relief. The offer was made by French President Francois Hollande at Palais de l’Elysee in Paris to President Aquino Wednesday as it signed updated bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the Philippines. No further details are available. But sources in Paris said that sale could be in the form of Official Government Assistance (ODA) from the French government financing the acquisition of the aircraft similar to the Rosenbauer firetruck purchases which was secured via loan grant from the Austrian government. The Philippines-France Defense Cooperation Agreement was signed by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian. “The Philippines is in the process of modernizing our armed forces and improving our defense capability, and we believe that France will be a reliable partner in this regard,” Aquino said in a Press release. Pierre Jaffre, Airbus executive vice president for Asia Pacific said said that it sees the possibility of selling its €150 million A400M military transport plane to the Philippine military. If approved, the Philippines could be the second country in ASEAN after Malaysia to order the aircraft. The Philippines operate a fleet of 5 refurbished C-130 aircraft for disaster relief. |
French President Francois Hollande is coming to the Philippines next year to make major announcement on DCA. Simlar approach has been made by the Philippine government relative to the FA-50 purchases from South Korea where President Aquino signed a DCA with Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul October last year while offers were made in the Philippines by then Korea President Lee Myung-bak in September of 2012. Earlier, Airbus military was confirmed by Department of National Defense (DND) as the supplier for Philippine Air Force’s three medium lift fixed wing aircraft acquisition project. DND issued a Notice to Proceed to EADS CASA signed by National Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin in March and the said notice was received by EADS in March 28, 2014 for delivery in August of next year. The C-295 is a smaller aircraft than the PAF C-130 while the A400-M is much bigger than C-130 plane capable of carrying twice the payload of the latter. While A400M is an expensive plane but if we can get it through grants can make financing of the same affordable. Assuming negotiations to be successful, the two frames will be taken from the French frame allocation.
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