The Republic of the Philippines is getting a real bargain. In this age of $1.3 billion guided missile destroyers, the island nation is "buying" a used warship from South Korea for the bargain-basement price of just $100. While that sounds like a screaming deal, exactly what is it getting for its money?
The Philippines is in the midst of a defense buildup. The island country has been locked in a political face-off with China over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. With no end in sight, the concern is the political dispute will escalate to a military one, a hypothetical conflict the Philippines would be woefully unready for. The country has been fighting an insurgency against various internal groups, including the Al Qaeda-aligned Abu Sayyaf guerrilla force, funding its army at the expense of its navy and air force.
The country has been on a low-grade shopping binge, purchasing a dozen F/A-50 fighters from South Korea and accepting donated Coast Guard cutters from the United States. Now, according to The Jakarta Post, it is about to get a Pohang-class corvette from South Korea for the fantastic sum of $100. The ship, ROK Chungju, was decommissioned from the Republic of Korea Navy in December 2016. The "purchase" is actually a transfer, and the $100 is largely symbolic.
The Pohang-class corvettes were some of the first large warships built by South Korean shipyards. Twenty-four corvettes were built during the mid 1980s and early 1990s between 1984 and 1993. Each weighed 1,200 tons fully loaded and had a maximum speed of 32 knots, armed with a pair of Italian-made 76-millimeter deck guns, four Harpoon anti-ship missiles, two 40-millimeter cannons, and anti-submarine torpedoes as well as depth charges. The Pohang-class ships were built mainly to patrol South Korean coastal waters and square off against North Korea's fleet of small gunboats and coastal submarines.
While the ex-Chungju is essentially free, the Philippines has also committed to paying to bring the ship back into service. One Philippine former naval officer-turned-blogger describes the necessary work as "repair, minor refurbishing works, replacement of obsolete systems required for safe use of the ship, crew billeting and training, and other expenses." That will cost an estimated 200 million Philippine pesos, or the equivalent of $4 million dollars.
The ship will also not transfer with all of its weaponry. The Harpoon missiles are not part of the sale-the missiles are still useful to South Korea and Seoul would have to get permission from the United States to sell them, a process that could take years. The ship might also lose its American-made Mk. 46 anti-submarine torpedoes.
source: sg.news.yahoo.com
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