Tag Archives: hamilton phillipines

Filipinos Outpost in South China Sea

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Agencee France, picked up by MSN reports

Filipinos fly flag in South China Sea

For the few dozen Filipinos living on a remote speck of land in the South China Sea, each day is a battle against loneliness but also a love affair with nature.

 

Contact with the outside world is limited and comforts are few for the residents of “Freedom” town, which exists mainly to raise the Philippine flag and fend off the other claimants to the Spratly islands.

“People here just play billiards, ping-pong. We have no markets and no malls. You need a special mindset to stay here,” said Eugenio Bito-onon, 55, mayor of the town of Kalayaan, the Filipino word for freedom.

Bito-onon, who initially went to Kalayaan in 1997 to work as a town planner, said he learned to cope by playing guitar, watching videos and simply walking around the small islands surrounded by the purest blue ocean waters.

“I love the beauty of the place. It is so peaceful,” said the deeply suntanned Bito-onon while on a visit recently back to Puerto Princesa, the nearest major Philippine city on Palawan island.

Kalayaan was created in 1978 mainly to assert the Philippines’ claim to the the Spratlys, a group of more than 700 islets, reefs and atolls in the South China Sea that is believed to sit above vast natural resources….(for more see the article http://news.ph.msn.com/regional/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5058784)

Philipino Navy Grows 800%

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A Defense Blog from Indonesia is reporting that the Phillipines is looking to pick up as many as 8 of the retiring Hamilton class high endurance cutters from the US Coast Guard.

The Hamilton were nice ships when they first came out in 1965

General characteristics
Displacement: 3,250 tons
Length: 378 feet (115 m)
Beam: 43 feet (13 m)
Propulsion: Two Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines and two Pratt & Whitney gas turbine engines
Speed: 28 knots (52 km/h) max
Range: 14,000 nautical miles (25,900 km)
Complement: 167
Sensors and
processing systems:		 AN/SPS-40 air-search radar MK 92 Fire Control System
Armament: Oto Melara 76 mm

They were refit in the 1980s and thier old WWII era 127mm main gun was replaced by the 76mm OTO Melera and they were fitted with Harpoon, CIWS and SLQ-32 countermeasures and chaff. This made them effective mini-frigates

Since the fall of the Soviet Union their Harpoons, CIWS and torpedoes have been removed and thier sonar shut down.

Hopefully the Phillipines will put thier teeth back in.

The ships are all over 40 years old, but if they have Harpoon, Phalanx and carry a few Mk.46 ASW torpedo fish they might not be a bad little force. If not……

Philippines would be Purchasing Eight ex Hamilton class Over Five Years

02 Juni 2011

USCG has 12 ships Hamilton class cutter that will soon be replaced by National Security class cutter (photo : USCG)

US cites ‘re-energized’ relations

 

WASHINGTON D.C. – The United States is “very pleased” with the re-energized relations with the Philippines as shown by discussions of top US and PHL officials on issues such as “maritime security and a range of economic initiatives.”

This was revealed by Kurt M. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in a speech Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) here.

Campbell mentioned the Philippines first in “a country-by-country evaluation” in a speech on the US outlook in Southeast and North East Asia, highlighting the US “policy of re-engagement” in the region.

Founded in 1962, CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization based in the nation’s capital which “seeks to advance global security and prosperity by providing strategic insights and policy solutions to decision-makers.”

Campbell’s speech was a preview on the high-level presence of the US in the region’s upcoming events. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in Bali, Indonesia, for the 18th Asean Regional Forum in mid-July.

Later this year, President Barack Obama will attend his first East Asia Summit, participate in the third US Asean Summit and host the annual APEC Leaders Summit in Honolulu.

Ambassador Jose L. Cuisia Jr., who was present at Campbell’s Asia overview, said the five-year, $434 million Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) anti-poverty grant to the Philippines “is on track.”

MCC implementation starts in the Philippines this month. The US has linked release of the grant on the condition of an improved human trafficking record by the Philippines.

Cuisia last week said in a press gathering the Philippines would be purchasing “eight cutters over five years” from the US. The cutters are part of the government-to-government cooperation on heightened Philippines’ coastal watch.

Cuisia formally received the Hamilton class cutter May 13 in California. He said the cutter, named after Philippine hero Gregorio del Pilar, would sail for the Philippines on July 5 and arrive there by August.