TSAMTO, June 16. The construction of the first two (tail numbers 901 and 902) of the nine high-speed missile interceptor boats of the Shaldag Mk.5 (Shaldag Mk V) class ordered for the Philippine Navy has been completed at the Israel Shipyards shipyard.
According to DA-REAL Military Channel, referring to the statement of the representative of the Philippine Navy, Vice Admiral Adeluis Bordado, these two boats will arrive in the Philippines in September this year.
According to the initial plan, the Philippine Navy expected to receive the first three ordered boats of the Shaldag Mk class.5 in the first quarter of 2022. Obviously, the implementation of the project is somewhat delayed.
As previously reported by TSAMTO, on January 4, 2021, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines sent notifications of acceptance of their proposals to the Israeli Defense Ministry and Israeli companies Israel Shipyards and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which participated in the tender for the purchase of new high-speed missile interceptor boats (FAIC-M). As part of the Philippine Navy project, 8 new Shaldag-class Mk.5 speedboats developed by Israel Shipyards will be delivered. The cost of the contract with Israel Shipyards for the supply of the boats themselves and the modernization of the Cavite Naval Shipyard is $127.9 million (6.16 billion phillips. pesos), and for the supply of weapons and missile systems with Rafael – 79.38 million dollars (3.82 billion phillips. pesos).
The contract for the supply of FAIC-M (as a result, 9 units) with a total value of 10 billion pesos was concluded on February 9, 2021, and the notification of the start of work was signed by the Minister of National Defense Delfin Lorenzana on April 27, 2021.
The agreement signed by Israel Shipyards, the Ministry of Defense of Israel and the customer also includes the transfer of documentation for the construction of boats, preparation and modernization of one of the buyer's shipyards for this purpose. Israel Shipyards will conduct personnel training on the construction of Shaldag Mk.5 sections and maintenance of boats at the customer's facility.
The Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced the conclusion of a contract worth about $ 80 million, providing for the supply of a set of weapons systems, on September 1, 2021. The company said in a statement that the contract, which must be completed within three years, provides for the supply of combat control systems (CMS), remotely controlled weapons systems "Typhoon" and "Mini-Typhoon", Naval Spike NLOS (Non-Line of Sight) missiles, internal communication systems Sea-Com, tactical BNET data channels, other components, as well as related maintenance and support provision.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems DUMV, the family of stabilized DUMV "Typhoon", depending on the needs of the customer, can be equipped with a 12.7-mm or 7.62-mm machine gun ("Mini-Typhoon"), a 25-mm or 30-mm automatic cannon ("Typhoon"). The Typhoon MLS-ER version is equipped with a launcher with four Spike-ER missiles (target range up to 8 km). The PU is equipped with an electron-optical fire control system and can launch missiles in the modes "fired and forgotten" (fire-and-forget), "fired, tracked, retargeted" (fire, observe, and update), "fired and aimed" (fire-and-steer), the last of which allows you to launch ammunition without seeing the target.
Probably the Shaldag Mk.5 will replace the Thomas Batilo class boats, the last pair of which was decommissioned by the Philippine Navy on March 1, 2021. These boats were transferred to the Philippine Navy by South Korea in the mid-1990s.
