AFP modernization phase not responsive to security landscape – experts

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MANILA, Philippines — The phases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization are no longer responsive to the fast-changing security landscape, and reforms are needed for the “agile” acquisition of assets, experts said on Wednesday.

They made the observation after Department of National Defense (DND) chief Gilberto Teodoro Jr. stressed the need to scrap the 15-year modernization phase, which he described as “too long and too impracticable.”

Teodoro said the modernization program must be more flexible, with new systems acquired as soon as they are needed.

READ: Defense chief Teodoro wants to do away with 15-year AFP modernization phase

Security expert Chester Cabalza and retired Navy admiral Rommel Jude Ong agreed on the need to fast-track the process of equipment acquisition.

“Flexibility is the magic word for military modernization in a VUCA (vulnerable, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world,” Cabalza said in a message to Inquirer.

“I do agree with the need to speed up the internal process within DND/AFP,” Ong, also a professor at the Ateneo School of Government, said in a message to Inquirer.

Stuck

Cabalza said the AFP Modernization Law is “stuck” in a three-level Horizons framework “that is not responsive to the fast-changing security landscape.”

The AFP Modernization Program is divided into three phases known as Horizons.

Horizon 1 covered 2013 to 2017, while Horizon 2 ran from 2018 to 2022. Horizon 3, originally set for 2023 to 2028, was restructured into “Re-Horizon 3,” approved in January 2024 with a 10-year duration.

Ong pointed out that the current acquisition phase often leaves newly procured equipment obsolete.

“[F]or new acquisition, by the nature of technology – an item you approve for acquisition now and delivered five years later, might be obsolete by the sixth year,” Ong said. “In this case, I agree the acquisition must be agile to adjust to the pace of technology.”

Cabalza also noted that some acquisitions in Horizon 1 and 2 are still incomplete.

“For instance, we should be acting now for Horizon 3, where procurement for submarines, hypersonic missiles, and war-fighting ships and aircraft has been achieved,” he said. “But in fact, we lag behind our neighbors and are still completing Horizons 1 and 2.”

Solution

Ong said the Philippines could consider the “French model” since the country’s defense ministry has a separate bureau for acquisition.

“Their armed forces only serve as the customer; they define the requirements and either accept or not the proposal of the said bureau,” he said.

Ong also said the government should set up a local domestic defense industry and develop a logistics ecosystem to avoid supply chain problems in the future.

“This will address sustainability issues and hopefully reduce cost while at the same time contributing to the local economy,” he added.

Cabalza said the government might revise the AFP Modernization Program or “just present one supreme horizon that envisions what the AFP wants aligned with their current strategies.”

“Knowing our strategic culture, we are bent to keep on changing it from time to time, given the revolving door culture in the military,” he added./mcm