Two Agusta Westland choppers for Philippine Navy arrive

May 7, 2019

The two Agusta Westland AW159 Wildcat helicopters of the Philippine Navy arrived Tuesday morning.

Philippinne Navy Flag Officer in Command, Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad, said the anti-submarine helicopters have "to pass customs.''

''But on our anniversary we will bless these as well as the amphibious assault vehicles of Marines," Empedrad added.

Empedrad said the helicopters have to undergo the Technical Inspection and Acceptance Committee (TIAC) inspection before these will be formally accepted by the Philippine Navy.

Defense blog site Maxdefense Philippine said the helicopters arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport around 3:40 am.

Empedrad said the helicopters are also capable of attacking and destroying submarines.

"It's a great leap in our capability because now we have facility that can locate subsurface, submarines. We can now ses the submarines that cross our waters," he said.

"It can detect and it can sink. It can destroy submarines because it has torpedoes, not only detection. It can also destroy it, so it has a good capability, but we need a lot of these because our territorial waters is very huge," he added.

Empedrad added that the Philippine Navy is also planning to install sonar capabilities in its vessels.

"It's the start of a new capability for us," he said. Robina Asido/DMS