Philippines To Buy C130 Transport Planes From US Navy

Philippine forces unload food and water from a Philippine Air Force C-130 for transfer to waiting US helicopters, which will delivered the goods to remote locations throughout Panay Island in June 2008. (Image © Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Spike Call / US Navy)

The Philippine military signed a pact with the US Navy last Friday to buy two secondhand C-130 Hercules transport planes for territorial defense and humanitarian operations.

“The United States is helping us pay for these two aircraft”, said Colonel Restituto Padilla, a spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Philippines was quoted as saying by Reuters.

“We have requested some 1.6 billion pesos to complete the purchase of the transport planes”, Padilla said, referring to a sum equivalent to $35.61 million.

The acquisitions from the US military will increase the PAF’s inventory of C-130s to a total of 5. The transport planes are expected to be delivered early next year.

US allocated military assistance funds of $50 million in 2014 to the Philippines. Besides the C-130s, the funds were used to install weapons on two frigates, also acquired from the US coast guard.

The purchase is part of a 90-billion-peso ($2 billion), five-year upgrade plan to catch up with Southeast Asian neighbors.