Page 10 - ADT NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2023 Online Magazine

is a joint venture between the defence research system and its pre-delivery inspection was completed by the PAF
& development organisation and Russian missile in Japan in September 2022.
house NPO Mashinostroyeniya (NPOM).
The Philippines will receive three fixed long-range air surveillance
The Philippine Army is now also eying the radars, each with building facilities and one mobile air surveillance
procurement of BrahMos missiles for coastal radar. The planned ASRS sites will cover large areas of the Philippine
defence. Reports in the Philippine media have Rise, Southern Areas of the country, and the Southern portion of the
indicated that the Philippine Army purchase West Philippine Sea and allow the Philippine Air Force to provide
will be for more numbers of systems than that optimal airspace monitoring, aircraft control, perform its air defence
ordered by the Philippine Marines. The addi- mission and enhance the security in areas of interest identified by
tional BrahMos missile systems will be used to the DND.
plug the gaps in the Philippines’ existing coastal
defence network.
The Royal Thai Navy (RTN) is also upgrading its coastal defence
systems with new air defence systems and radars. The RTN inducted
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is also acquiring air the Chinese FK-3 air defence system in 2022. The FK-3 is built by
surveillance radars from Japan under its horizon China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited (CASIC)
2 air surveillance radar system (ASRS) acquisi- and is an export variant of CASIC’s HQ-22 surface to air missile
tion project. The Philippines had announced a (SAM) system. The FK-3 is thought to be capable of engaging aerial
Government-to-Government procurement with targets out to ranges of 100 km. The all-weather, medium-to-long
Japan for air surveillance radars in August 2020. range surface-to-air defence missile system can intercept targets
The air surveillance radars are being supplied including fixed-wing aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, tactical air-
by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation as part of a to-ground missiles and helicopters. Serbia also procured FK-3 air
contract valued at US$103 million. defence missile systems in 2022.

Deliveries of the radars commenced to the The RTN has also strengthened its coastal surveillance network with
Philippines in 2022 with Mitsubishi Electric the induction of new Terma Scanter radars with deliveries having
Corporation to supply a total of four air surveil- begun in late 2022. These radars are being installed on pre-des-
lance radar systems. Deliveries of all four radars ignated sites along Thailand’s coastline and the radars include
will be completed this year. The first fixed radar Terma’s Scanter 5202 and 2202 and will be combined with a variety

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