Re: ASEAN military news
U.S.-Philippines Pact Could Modestly Boost American Arms Sales
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON Sun Apr 27, 2014 2:56pm EDT
A new 10-year security pact between the United States and the Philippines could lead to modest increases in U.S. weapons sales in coming years, especially for maritime surveillance equipment, analysts said on Sunday.The agreement, to be signed on Monday, establishes a framework for an increased U.S. military presence in the Philippines and is part of a "rebalancing" of U.S. resources toward the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region.The deal comes 23 years after the Philippine Senate voted to evict the U.S. military from bases there, ending 94 years of American military presence in the Asian nation.What Manila needs most in the way of military technology is weapons that can help enforce its claim to areas in the South China Sea," Thompson said.
That could include P-8A maritime patrol aircraft built by Boeing Co, which have already been sold to India, conventional munitions such as the Standard Missile-3 built by Raytheon Co and small warships built by Lockheed Martin Corp or Australia's Austal, he said.U.S. industry executives said they were keeping a close eye on the situation in the Philippines, but arms sales ultimately would be negotiated between the two governments."This is a new market," said one industry executive who was not authorized to speak publicly. "Chinese ambitions are making many countries look for support from the United States - even ones that have been out of the U.S. sphere for some time, such as the Philippines and Vietnam."Byron Callan, an analyst with Capital Alpha Partners, cautioned that any U.S. arms sales would be limited in scope, given the small size of the Philippines' defense budget, which totaled just $2.2 billion in 2013, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
It looks like a stealth yacht coming from a villain in a James Bond film. Gotta give it to Saab for designing outside the box.
