PN receives Shaldag Mk. V fast attack craft

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PN receives Shaldag Mk. V fast attack craft

Over the next few years, the Philippine Navy (PN) plans to acquire at least 19 new and three used ships to supplement its ageing and fledgling fleet. Aside from the 11 new ships already scheduled for delivery, the Department of National Defence (DND) is expected to sign contracts for two landing docks and six offshore patrol vessels worth approximately P35 billion shortly.

By September 2022, the PN will receive the first two Shaldag Mk. V fast attack craft it ordered from an Israeli shipbuilder as nine Shaldag Mk. V fast attack crafts. They were ordered from Israel Shipyards through a G2G procurement process with the Israeli Ministry of Defence.

All boats will be armed with 30mm autocannons mounted on a Typhoon remote-controlled weapon station (RCWS) from Israeli defence firm Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd., as well as 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns.

At least four boats would also be outfitted with a Typhoon MLS-NLOS missile launcher capable of launching Rafael's Spike NLOS surface-to-surface missile with an effective range of around 20 kilometres.

These Shaldag Mk. V boats will be used to replace the Tomas Batilo-class fast attack craft purchased secondhand from the Republic of Korea in the early 1990s. The Tomas Batilo-class patrol boats were formerly known as the Chamsuri-class patrol boats of the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN).