As technologies become more advance one cannot help but be surprised at the speed in development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones as they are called. Suppliers and vendors of commercial drones have sprouted like mushrooms in part taking advantage of the interest by the public of the capabilities of these UAVs, and even toy stores are selling drones for recreational purposes. For local government units in the Philippines the acquisition of drones has become a necessity in order to augment its disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities.
These drones provide advance information and real time imagery of situations on the ground in instances where personnel need to monitor areas of concerns far from where they are currently situated. In effect it gives these
personnel time to prepare in advance before they physically reached an area already being monitored by a drone. For its part the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) particularly its Army Aviation regiment have already acquired military grade and commercial grade UAVs to augment its present crop of fix wing and rotary wing aircraft bought and supplied by Israel, the United States, and China.
It has also acquired locally manufactured miniature UAVs called Raptor and Knight Falcon which were actually the earliest unmanned aerial systems (UAS) acquisitioned by the AFP. These miniature drones began operating for the Philippine Military way back in 2013 and reportedly cost P150,000 for the Raptor drone while the Knight Falcon drone came at a price of P 300,000. A more enhanced version of these miniature drones also came into production at a cost of P 1.5 million.
For the bigger drones which were purchased from other countries there is the Hermes 450 medium from Israel which is called a tactical UAV and is a multi-payload drone for long endurance missions. As reported in 2019 these Israeli made drones can remain in the sky for close to 24 hours and a primary mission of reconnaissance, surveillance and communications relay. In a report it was learned that a total of 13 UAVs from Israel has already arrived in the Philippines with 4 Hermes medium altitude long endurance UAVs and 9 Hermes 900 which has more operational capabilities than the former.
These Hermes drones will be under the wing of the Philippine airforce and can be utilized for “various surveillance missions, including tracking down terrorists in jungle and urban areas; battlefield surveillance and real time
surveillance; and maritime surveillance in the West Philippine Sea, northern borders with Taiwan, Japan and the Bashi Channel, southern tri-border with Indonesia and Malaysia, and the Philippine Rise, and other missions like search and rescue.” (https:// www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/ 45190)
There are other UAVs already in operation under the control and supervision of the AFP and its various divisions such as the Skylark from Israel which is a hand launched and catapult launched UAV, the Thor UAV from Israel which is a miniature drone used for intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition, and the DJI Phantom from China which according to Wikipedia were commercial drones bought of the shelf by Philippine army units. Not to be outdone by Israel in the drone department the United States in 2021 gave the to the Philippines four ScanEagle
UAS worth P 200,000,000.
According to a report these platforms “will provide additional capabilities in unmanned intelligence, Surveillance,
Reconnaissance (ISR), and in support of counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts”. (https:// ph.usembassy.gov/u-s-military delivers-advanced-unmanned aerial-system-to-philippine-air force/)
However, given the continuing tension in the West Philippine Sea and the still prevalent and problematic issue of
illegal drugs entering the country’s borders (e.g. 179 kilos of floating shabu recovered in Ilocos Sur), there is an urgent need to acquire more eyes in the sky through these so UAVs to enhance the ISR capabilities of not only the AFP in particular but also the government in general.
While it is not yet necessary to weaponized these drones, like what Ukraine and Russia are doing in their war of
attrition, the Philippines can acquire more drones to bolster its effectiveness in the sky by exponentially expanding its observation capabilities through these UAVs especially along its maritime borders. The Philippines can even
manufacture its own Hermes or ScanEagle UAS since it already possesses units which it can reverse engineer.
Manufacturing locally made drones is no longer difficult, even military grade types, since the technology is readily
available and there are departments in government that can do further research for prototypes before they can be scaled up for mass production. May be the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) can invent new kinds of UAVs which are hybrids in the sense that it can be fueled both by alcohol or gasoline and electricity through long life
batteries, and will also have the capability to glide for long distances to conserve on fuel and electricity while on patrol mode over land and sea. It can only be hoped that in the near future the Philippines will be recognized as one of the prime operators of UAVs in South East Asia with innovative and creative design and function for multi purpose utilization.
November 1, 2024
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