5 July 2017
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) will receive delivery of undisclosed number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from the United States in September this year says its Defence Minister.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said The US government has programmed to hand over a Scan Eagle-type X200 UAS manufactured by Insitu’s, as disclosed by US Ambassador Sung Kim to Rodrigo Duterte in Malacanang Monday together with some precision ordnances.
The The first Scan Eagle-type X200 UAS was handed by Zamboanga-based U.S. Special Operations Forces to the Philippine military in 2012 while the new UAS was acquired by the Philippine government in 2016 for $13.5M taken from Foreign Military Sales (FMS).
UK-based IHS Jane's disclosed the Philippines' follow-on system likely to be made up of about 15 UAS vehicles.
The Philippines is acquiring eight (8) more ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Insitu Inc. worth $9,633,665 financed under the United States Foreign Military Sales program.
ReplyDeleteThe delivery of the eight UAV’s will add the Philippine Air Force’s inventory of such aircraft following the turnover in March last year by the US of six (6) ScanEagle 2 drones to the Philippine Department of National Defense.
The six drones were acquired through a grant in the amount $13.2 million that was part of the financial assistance provided by the US to the Philippines.
The drones can be seen in Subic, Puerto Princesa, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga.