Key Points and Summary – The Philippines is eyeing a major $5.58 billion purchase of advanced F-16 fighter jets from the United States to counter increasing aggression from China in the South China Sea.
-The U.S. government has already approved the sale, and defense contractor Lockheed Martin is sweetening the deal with new technology partnerships.
-However, the acquisition is shrouded in mystery, as the Filipino Defense Secretary recently downplayed the reports as “media hype,” claiming there was “nothing on the table.”
-This uncertainty comes as Manila desperately needs to modernize its outmatched air force in the face of a more assertive Beijing.
The F-16 Fighter Heading to the Philippines
WARSAW, POLAND – Lockheed Martin has announced it is expanding its industrial collaboration package with the Philippines as a proposed solution for that country’s Multi-Role Fighter program.
This enhanced offer will now include a strategic partnership with the Texas-based Southern Methodist University (SMU).
The company’s press announcement says that this teaming arrangement will “drive digital innovation, intellectual property creation, and workforce development with Philippine universities and industry.”
The company announcement singles out the specific benefits for the Philippines in its institutions of higher technical education.
To quote the press release, they include:
-Access to state-of-the-art innovation tools and equipment located at SMU, enabling Filipino professionals to develop innovative solutions and prototypes
-Funding for business incubation, government initiatives, and academic programs
-Establishment of a world-class research lab and training space
-Collaboration with leading universities and companies in the Philippines to develop new capabilities and intellectual properties
The F-16 Question
In April, the Philippines had been cleared by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) to purchase sixteen (16) F-16 C Block 70/72 aircraft and four (4) F-16 D Block 70/72 aircraft for a total of 20 of the US single-engine fighter jets.
Among the other items that would be part of the acquisition are twenty-four (24) of either the F110-GE-129D or F100-PW-229 Engines (20 installed plus four spares) and twenty-two (22) AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR) – (20 installed, two spares).
The issuance of this type of DSCA announcement is usually a sign that a defense deal has already been struck and only the formalities remain. The total dollar value of the procurement is $5.58 billion.
This sum seems like a small number compared to the price tags associated with so many weapons programs today, but for a country of limited means like the Philippines, it is a massive expenditure. The nation’s entire annual military budget is only $6 billion, only slightly more than the proposed fighter deal, which amounts to 1.3 percent of its GDP.
Is There or Is There Not a Sale?
Given the state of the Philippines Air Force and the increasingly aggressive posture of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against the island archipelago nation, a new fighter aircraft seems a prudent decision to make. The question now remains whether the sale will move forward.
During the late May-early June Shangri-La Dialogue Asia-Pacific Security Conference held in Singapore, the country’s defense secretary, Gilberto Teodoro, said the Philippines had still not received a formal offer to purchase this most advanced of all the different F-16 variants. And at the time, he said that even if there was an offer, his department was still not in agreement as to whether or not they wanted them.
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing on the table for me to consider,” he said in an interview for the American publication, Defense News.
Teodoro described articles and announcements that made it appear as though the sale was already agreed to as “media hype.” Still, he did not explain why the State Department and DSCA had already approved the sale if Manila had not extended any official request to purchase the aircraft.
“We have not even decided, number one, when we will acquire a multi-role fighter and what model,” he said to the publication. The F-16V version has already been acquired by the neighboring Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, and the nation’s air force (ROCAF) also intends to modernize its fleet of previously acquired F-16s to a configuration similar to the Block 70/72, to include the AESA radar.
Beijing Bluster
The announcement in April had also drawn the ire of Beijing, which opposes the increasing military ties between the Philippines and the US. The Philippine government under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been improving its defense relationship with Washington and has made that connection a central tenet of Manila’s foreign policy.
Overall, the Philippines has pledged to spend $35 billion over the next decade to upgrade its military. But this fighter buy would be by far the single most expensive line item in a series of procurements that would strengthen the country’s ability to defend its own coastlines and territorial waters.
Chinese coast guard vessels have become known for regularly harassing Philippine ships in the South China Sea. Beijing claims these waters as its own in spite of a contrary ruling in 2016 from the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The actions of PRC vessels are so recklessly aggressive at times that on August 11, two of their ships, the China Coast Guard (CCG) Cutter 3104 and the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 052D guided-missile destroyer Guilin, collided while trying to blockade the disputed Scarborough Shoal.
“The Philippines in general and the Philippine Air Force in particular are in real need of some modern hardware,” said a former Pentagon official who had previously visited the country for high-level interactions with defense leaders. “There have been times when the equipment they had to use was so limited that they actually had more generals serving in the air force than they had serviceable fighter aircraft,” he recalled.
For his part, Teodoro had shown at the Singapore event that there is no love lost between his country and Beijing. There was more than one abrasive back and forth between him and the PRC delegates, who posed barbed questions about the Philippines’ alliance with Washington.
“China has a lot of trust building to do to be an effective negotiating partner,” Teodoro said during his remarks while speaking at the forum. “We have to call a spade a spade.” He also later thanked the Chinese “for sending so many propagandists” to ask belligerent questions of him.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the US Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
Military Affairs
China’s Stealth Air Force Has 1 Mission
