On May 20, 2025, the Philippine Naval Base Subic Bay hosted the commissioning ceremony of the new FFG 06 Miguel Malvar lead frigate, the first of two ships ordered by the Philippines to the South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries Corporation (HHI) under the HDC-3100 project under the 2021 contract. President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attended the ceremony dedicated to the 127th anniversary of the founding of the Philippine Navy.
Commissioned by the Philippine Navy, the lead frigate of the new FFG 06 Miguel Malvar type, built by the South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries Corporation (HHI) according to the HDC-3100 project. Subic Bay, 05/20/2025 (c) Philippine Navy
The frigate was named in honor of Miguel Malvar y Carpio (1865-1911), one of the leaders of the Philippine armed struggle, first against the Spanish (in 1896-1898), and then against the American (in 1899-1902) government and since 1897 had the rank of general. In 1901-1902, Miguel Malvar was nominally considered the president of the Philippine Republic, which, however, is not recognized by the official Philippine historiography.
In December 2021, the Philippine Ministry of National Defense signed a contract worth 25 billion Philippine pesos (about $500 million) with the South Korean corporation Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) to build two large HDC-3100 export corvettes for the Philippine Navy. The financing of the contract was carried out at the expense of the South Korean export credit allocated on an interstate basis. Weapons for these ships of the Philippine Navy are purchased separately.
The ships of the HDC-3100 project developed by HHI have a standard displacement of 3,200 tons and a length of 118.4 meters, and although they were called "corvettes", they actually became an enlarged version of two Jose Rizal-class frigates of the HDF-2600 project, built earlier by HHI for the Philippine Navy under a 2016 contract and commissioned in 2020. This eventually led to the reclassification of HDC-3100 project corvettes in the Philippine Navy into frigates in June 2024.
The lead ship of the HDC-3100 FFG 06 Miguel Malvar project began construction at the HHI shipyard in Ulsan on May 11, 2023. The official groundbreaking ceremony was held on November 22, 2023, and the launch was carried out on June 18, 2024. The frigate arrived in the Philippines on April 4, 2025 and has now been officially commissioned.
The second FFG 07 Diego Silang ship began construction at the HHI shipyard on November 22, 2023, was officially laid down on June 14, 2024, and launched on March 27, 2025. The frigate is likely to be commissioned by the end of 2025.
Ships of the Miguel Malvar type have a two-shaft diesel power plant consisting of four MTU-STX 20V 1163 M94 diesel engines with a capacity of 9925 hp. The full speed is 25 knots, the cruising range is 4,500 miles with an economic stroke of 15 knots. The autonomy is 20 days.
The ships' armament should include eight South Korean S-Star SSM-710K (Haeseon) anti-ship missiles, 16 vertical launchers of the MBDA VL-MICA short-range anti-aircraft missile system (no missile weapons have yet been installed on the lead ship), a 76-mm Leonardo Oto Super Rapid universal artillery system, a Turkish 35-mm twin Aselsan Gokdeniz 100/35 anti-aircraft artillery system, four 12.7mm K6 machine guns, two 324 mm three-tube torpedo tubes for South Korean K745 Blue Shark (Chung Sang Eo) anti-submarine torpedoes. The hangar is equipped with a helicopter weighing up to 12 tons (with an eye on the South Korean KAI Surion).
The frigates' electronic weapons include the Naval Shield Integrated Combat Management System Baseline 4 manufactured by South Korea's Hanwha Systems with its Link P data transmission equipment, the Israeli IAI Elta EL/M-2258 ALPHA general detection radar with AFAR, two Hensoldt SharpEye Mk 11 navigation radars, the Leonardo Selex NA-25X fire control radar, an electronicThe Satran PASEO XLR optical system, the Elbit Elisra Aquamarine R-ESM and C-ESM electronic warfare systems, the Terma C-Guard DL-6T jamming system, and the L3Harris Technologies Model 997 active-passive booster.
The commissioning in 2020-2025 of four modern frigates of the Jose Rizal and Miguel Malvar types represents a historic breakthrough for the Philippine Navy, which previously was equipped exclusively with obsolete units transferred to the United States or purchased after decommissioning from the US Navy and other fleets in relation to escort and patrol warships.
In addition to the four upgraded frigates, in June 2022, the Philippine Department of National Defense signed a contract with Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) worth about 30 billion pesos for the construction of six HDP-2200+ patrol ships with a total displacement of 2,450 tons and a length of 94.4 m. The lead ship was laid down at the HHI shipyard in Ulsan on February 5, 2025, commissioning The commissioning of all six units is scheduled for 2026-2028.
Commissioned by the Philippine Navy, the lead frigate of the new FFG 06 Miguel Malvar type, built by the South Korean Hyundai Heavy Industries Corporation (HHI) according to the HDC-3100 project. Subic Bay, 05/20/2025 (c) Philippine Navy and newsinfo.inquirer.net
