Philippine Air Force to take delivery of C-130 this month

The Philippine Air Force will take delivery of a C-130 this month, a Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson has revealed.

A C-130T prepares to take off and execute a functional-check flight at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Sept. 28, 2016. The aircraft has been in storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group since April 2015 before the 576th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Squadron prepared it for use by the Philippine Air Force this past June. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Nathan H. Barbour)

No specific arrival date has been set yet. A second C-130 will be delivered by the end of the year. This will bring the C-130 fleet to seven aircraft.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenza had said in 2018 that two C-130s are to be delivered in 2019. It is not known why the delivery was pushed back. He was quoted as saying that one of the new C-130 being delivered will be used for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

In 2018, the U.S. government transfered a set of Special Airborne Mission Installation and Response (SABIR) system to the Philippines. It was a donation under the U.S. Southeast Asia Maritime Security initiative.

The SABIR system is a bolt-on avionics module that is mounted on the paratroop door on the C-130. Made by Airdyne, the SABIR can be mounted on either side or both sides of the paratroop doors. Senors such as Synthetic Aperture Radar or imaging cameras can be mounted on the module that takes about 1 minute to deploy or retract. It also has an ejector for deployment of sonobuoys or Viper Strike munitions.

Photo: U.S. State Department