America has accredited the attainable $5.58 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, in a bid to bolster its navy capability within the face of accelerating Chinese language belligerence in disputed waters.
In an announcement late Tuesday, the Protection Safety Cooperation Company (DSCA) stated that the State Division had green-lighted a sale that features 20 F-16 jets and the associated gear to its long-standing safety ally.
The sale will “enhance the safety of a strategic associate that continues to be an vital power for political stability, peace, and financial progress in Southeast Asia,” the DSCA stated. It might additionally enhance “the Philippine Air Power’s capacity to conduct maritime area consciousness” and “improve its suppression of enemy air defences.” The acquisition would additionally “develop interoperability with the U.S. forces,” the DSCA added.
The announcement got here shortly after Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth paid a high-profile go to to the Philippines for talks with senior officers, together with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., throughout which he vowed to “reestablish deterrence within the Indo-Pacific area.”
“Deterrence is critical world wide, however particularly on this area, in your nation, contemplating the threats from the communist Chinese language,” Hegseth reportedly informed Marcos.
The deal comes after a number of years of rising tensions within the South China Sea, the place the China Coast Guard (CCG) has elevated each the frequency and depth of its incursions into waters claimed by the Philippines.
This has resulted in a sequence of harmful confrontations wherein CCG vessels have rammed Philippine ships or doused them with high-pressure water cannons. In June of final yr, Philippine and Chinese language personnel got here to direct blows near Second Thomas Shoal within the Spratly Islands, leading to a critical damage to 1 Filipino marine.
Consequently, Marcos has taken a number of main steps to extend safety cooperation with the U.S., its long-standing safety ally. His administration has opened up extra Philippine bases to a rotational U.S. presence beneath a 2014 protection pact, and initiated extra joint patrols and expanded navy workout routines. In July 2024, beneath Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, the U.S. introduced $500 million in new navy funding to the Philippines, a “once-in-a-generation funding” that will assist modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
If it goes by means of, the proposed jet fighter acquisition, which incorporates 16 F-16C Block 70/72 multirole fighters and 4 F-16B Block 70/72 twin-seat variants, would signify “a generational leap within the Philippine Air Power’s tactical airpower,” Protection Safety Asia reported.
The Trump White Home’s actions to date, together with exempting the Philippines from its sweeping overseas assist cuts, counsel that the U.S.-Philippine relationship will survive the administration’s turbulent early months. The approval of the F-16 deal, which was doubtless initiated beneath Biden, provides an extra signal that the Philippines stays a precedence associate within the western Pacific.
It is very important notice that the deal has not but been finalized. DSCA has formally submitted the notification to Congress, and the deal will now be topic to a 30-day interval wherein legislators can increase objections to the sale. (In apply, objections are uncommon.) The ultimate configuration, supply timeline, and worth of the deal will then be decided throughout additional bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Predictably, China responded to the information of the attainable deal by warning the Philippines in opposition to threatening “regional peace.”
“No matter protection or safety cooperation between the Philippines and different international locations shouldn’t goal any third social gathering or hurt their curiosity, nonetheless much less threaten regional peace and safety or escalate tensions within the area,” Overseas Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun stated in a briefing in Beijing yesterday. “Who precisely is fueling the flames? Who precisely is instigating navy confrontation? Who precisely is popping Asia right into a ‘powder keg?’ Regional international locations aren’t blind.”
