Philippine Coast Guard and US Department of Defense Photos
China has reacted strongly to a plan of the Philippines to acquire a midrange missile capability to boost deterrence as regional tensions rise in the South China Sea.
China has been stepping up its coercive actions in disputed waters, asserting its illegal and excessive claims on the strategic waters where about $3 trillion in trade passes every year.
It has deployed hundreds of navy, coast guard, and militia vessels and militarized seven artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea to increase its anti-access and area denial (A2AD) capability, pushing away the United States and its allies from its first island chain of defense.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, said the Philippines’ plan to deploy a midrange missile would intensify geopolitical confrontation and an arms race.
“It is an extremely irresponsible choice for the history and people of itself and the whole of Southeast Asia, as well as for the security of the region,” she said in a daily briefing in Beijing.
Mao was responding to the Philippine Army chief, Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, who told journalists in Manila that the Philippines was seriously considering acquiring a midrange capability missile (MRC) to protect its national interests.
The Beijing mouthpiece’s comments were unfounded. She knew the Philippines could not afford to acquire the MRC. She was hitting the United States.
In truth, Galido did not specify what kind of MRC the Philippine Army wanted to procure because the missile launcher Typhon, which the US military had deployed to northern Luzon, is not available for transfer to a third country.
Unlike other weapons systems, the Typhon is still untested. It was developed only in 2023. One of the first batteries was sent to the Philippines to test how feasible the missile launcher could operate in a tropical environment and near a body of water and mountainous terrain.
Both the US and the Philippines said only the launcher was sent to northern Luzon. It was not test-fired during the Army’s Salaknib exercises and the joint and combined drills Balikatan early this year year.
Apart from the Philippines, the United States also planned to deploy the MRC to Japan. It has an unspecified number of long-range HIMARS capable of hitting targets 300 km away from southwestern Japan.
The MRC is capable of delivering the sea-based Tomahawk cruise and the standard SM-6 missiles.
It was developed to hit targets beyond the range of the US Army’s Precision Strike Missiles, but shorter than the longer hypersonic missile system.
Only the US operates the MRC and the Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM). It has turned down a request from Norway to acquire the newly-developed missiles.
Future operators include Australia and the United Kingdom, which had partnered with the United States for the development of the missiles.
The three countries are also partners in building Australia’s nuclear-powered submarines under the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) agreement.
Thus, the Philippines couldn’t acquire such a capability shortly. Another constraint is the lack of funds to acquire midrange missiles, like the Tomahawk and SM-6.
Congress even slashed the military’s modernization budget by P5 billion, cutting it to P35 billion. It is just enough to pay the annual amortization for the 11 projects the Philippines had begun under Presidents Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte.
Congress did not allocate new funds for new projects, like the acquisition of trainer planes, multi-role fighters, and submarines, which would boost deterrence.
The Philippine Air Force only has Siai Marchetti S-211 trainer jets, which were acquired in the 1990s, but doubled as air defense planes.
On paper, it has 12 South Korean FA-50s but only five are operational due to lack of spare parts.
With less than a squadron of trainer jets, the Philippines has no air defense capability even if it can detect intrusions into its airspace with radars supplied by Japan and Israel.
It has also increased its ground-based air defense systems with Israeli spyder systems and added Indian shore-based anti-ship BrahMos missiles.
However, the Philippines needs more air defense and anti-ship missiles to increase its A2AD capability and push foreign vessels beyond its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ).
There were some alternatives to the US MRC. South Korea has KM-SAM and Turkey has the Hisar O+ but these midrange air defense missiles have a shorter range – below 50 kms.
The Philippines must have an integrated air defense system to cover 100% of the country’s Philippines Air Defense Identification Zone (PADIZ) as well as have an effective maritime domain awareness.
There were reports that Chinese warships and law enforcement vessels were getting as close as 30 to 50 nautical miles from the country’s western seaboard, posing a serious national security threat.
Manila was lucky a Russian Kilo-class conventional submarine surfaced near Mindoro, otherwise, it would have had no way of detecting a sub-surface vessel.
These reports are alarming.
But the country’s lawmakers – senators and congressmen – were more concerned with their selfish interests, cutting defense spending and realigning funds to pet projects and hidden pork barrel allocations.
The lawmakers wanted to keep their positions in an election year. But they must also consider national security interests.
If the country’s political leaders are serious about hardening deterrence, they should not sacrifice defense spending over cash transfers. The executive branch has enough resources for that.
Lawmakers do not need to distribute funds directly to the poor in the form of guarantee letters and through AKAP programs. Their only role is to pass laws and exercise oversight to make sure the funds they allocate are spent effectively.
The defense department has to raise its spending to about 2% of GDP, allocating P100 billion separately to upgrade capability and catch up with its peers in Southeast Asia.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have fighter squadrons and submarines. These countries have a few stockpiles of air defense and anti-ship missiles.
President Ferdinand Marcos can veto some items in the 2025 budget and restore funds taken out from the military modernization funds.
The president warned against complacency during the recent Armed Forces Day celebration and promised to prioritize military modernization.
Walk the talk, Mr. President.