The Need For Expanding Primary Philippine Naval Facilities

In discussing defense-related topics, acquisition projects relative to buying military hardware has always come as a norm, especially that the Revised AFP Modernization Program itself emphasizes the need of expanded firepower capabilities that align with territorial defense posturing of the Philippine government at-large, with it being the primary policy statement under the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept framework.

This topic will talk things other than getting the materials and specific weaponry needed to implement the Armed Forces of the Philippines' core mandate, and instead will deal with one key area that needs full development when the acquisition spree is still ongoing at the time this article publishes. And this refers to the current need for facility expansion, starting with the naval service branch of the Philippine military.

RAPID FLEET EXPANSION

The Philippine Navy is experiencing its rapid fleet expansion as it expects the commissioning of additional ships to its fleet composition in the next few years.
Image from the Naval Forces Central Facebook page.

Since the Revised AFP Modernization Program started in 2013, the Philippine Navy experienced its fleet expansion through the years up to the present time this article publishes in this website, whereby the service branch’s current fleet composition primarily composed of vessels bought from at least fifteen (15) years or less, effectively decommissioning most of its remaining World War 2-era vessels that comprised the fleet before the modernization acquisition spree took place.

Previously bought vessels that are now part of the Philippine Navy’s Offshore Combat Force units from the turn of the 2010s are the following warship classes: three (3) Del Pilar-class offshore patrol vessels (previously classified as patrol frigates) which were Hamilton-class cutters of the United States Coast Guard, one (1) Conrado Yap-class corvette, two (2) Jose Rizal-class guided missile frigates, and two (2) Miguel Malvar-class guided missile frigates.

Added to the list are the vessels belonging to the Philippine Navy’s Sealift Amphibious Force, ‌which this includes the two (2) Tarlac-class Landing Platform Docks bought from PT PAL Persero of Indonesia, and five (5) Ivatan-class landing crafts, which are basically former Balikpapan-class patrol crafts from Royal Australian Navy. Also, the Littoral Combat Force receives the Acero-class Fast Attack Interdiction Craft - Missile (FAIC-M), and the succeeding variants of the multipurpose attack craft (MPAC).

In the active pipeline of acquisition, the Philippine Navy receives two (2) Rajah Sulayman-class offshore patrol vessels out of six (6) ordered from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, plus two (2) additional Miguel Malvar-class guided missile frigates ordered under the Full Complement Acquisition Program. Also included in the active pipeline is the likely transfer of the Abukuma-class destroyer escorts to the Philippine Navy from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

With the significant increase in the number of large hulls of eighty (80) meters above within the Philippine Navy’s own fleet, the question of facilities that will accommodate is unavoidable, as this usually comes as a follow-on question in a logical scheme of things of operating such capital naval assets that defend the country’s territorial and exclusive economic zone waters. And in terms of naval facilities and operating bases, the answer usually lies way beyond the recognizable waters of Naval Operating Base Subic.

DEFINING A NAVAL BASE AND OTHER FACILITIES

A naval operating base or station ideally comes with facilities that can sustain both naval assets and the personnel who own its planks, regardless of nomenclature.
Screenshot from Naval Shipyard 78th Anniversary AVP

When defining a full naval base or facility, one that comes to mind is‌ how the primary one in Subic comes that is relative to its structure and its full description, as what the Philippine Navy did was to take a portion of a former South Korean shipyard that since then bankrupted and then divided into parts, with the other parts of the former shipbuilding complex occupied by the likes of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Philippines, a subsidiary branch that produces full naval vessels for the fleet.

At its basic definition, a naval base is an area of command for a naval force assigned to the area, and also serves as a primary hub that provides the logistical, administrative, and operational requirements needed in operating a fleet, ensuring its prolonged sustainment of naval support for maritime security operations needed for an archipelagic nation like the Philippines. Of course, this definition also intertwines what defines a naval station in terms of nomenclature that describes it.

Sticking to the nuances that will appropriately describe a Naval Operating Base in the Philippine setting, it is a primary hub that has the aforementioned features and attributes as already provided in its said basic definition, plus added berthing spaces for multiple naval assets of the fleet of large sizes to dock. The added space is a necessity, especially with the new, larger hulls that the service branch slowly introduced to the fleet as part of the ongoing capability expansion plans under its sail plan initiative.

Typically, a Naval Operating Base has expanded capabilities than that of the Naval Stations that the Philippine Navy has across the country, as the former usually come with facilities that can actually maintain the naval vessels that the service branch has, with personnel belonging to the Naval Shipyard unit providing the support mechanisms and expanded facilities required in sustaining both the ships and its personnel, along with providing additional space for berthing warships that moors in dedicated piers.

In comparison, a naval station in the Philippine Navy’s setup, setting aside Naval Station Pascual Ledesma - Fort San Felipe in Cavite (see image above), usually comes as a small naval installation deployed in areas across the country, with facilities sufficient to accommodate smaller vessels and at least one (1) or two (2) large naval assets of the Offshore Combat Force. While it might have facilities that can maintain naval vessels, its scope limits itself only to small vessels assigned to a naval station.

PLANNED NAVAL FACILITIES OTHER THAN CAVITE AND NOB SUBIC

Aside from NOB Subic and Naval Station Pascual Ledesma Fort San Felipe, the Philippine Navy aims to further develop Naval Station NABASAN, Naval Base Rafael Ramos, and Naval Support Base Misamis Oriental.
Screenshot from Naval Shipyard 78th Anniversary AVP

In the audio-visual presentation of the Philippine Navy’s Naval Shipyard unit, there were one (1) existing naval operating bases that is currently undertaking comprehensive and expanded construction works, one (1) expanded wharf near the vicinity of an existing naval operating base, and one (1) planned naval operating base in Mindanao. These are the Nabasan Wharf, Naval Operating Base Rafael Ramos in Mactan, Cebu, and the future area within PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental.

The Nabasan Wharf is a single naval facility situated just southeast of Naval Operating Base Subic and near the vicinity of the Subic Bay International Airport, of which the Philippine Navy has a plan to provide an expanded pier that will add the capacity over the space available in the Naval Operating Base in the area, while having an added facility that will provide extensive maintenance and logistics to the fleet vessels, minimizing the concentration of activity to the Naval Operating Base within the Subic Bay area.

Meanwhile, the Naval Base Rafael Ramos is a naval facility that is currently undertaking construction works, sitting in the area southeast of Cebu’s International Port and on the Island of Mactan facing the shorelines of Cebu City itself. This is where Naval Forces Central currently operate from, as the current plan includes reclamation works that will increase the land area of the naval base, with facilities ranging from added piers for mooring, drydock and other maintenance facilities, and barracks for personnel.

Finally, the future naval base sitting within the PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental will come as the expanded footprint of the Philippine Navy’s complex facility will accommodate the extensive support of its troops and personnel, and will probably be the one sitting in the Mindanao area. 

Owned by the Philippine Veterans Investment Development Corporation or PHIVIDEC, the Industrial Estate in Misamis Occidental is the one that the Defense Department aims to purchase, intended for the purpose mentioned.

The two naval facilities remaining that are on the map are both the Naval Operating Base Subic itself and the Naval Station Pascual Ledesma Fort San Felipe in Cavite, of which each aforementioned naval facility will get its upgrade that will serve the intended purpose of providing expanded care for the Philippine Navy vessels respectively belonging to both the Offshore Combat Force and the Littoral Combat Force, ensuring the smooth flow of operations resulting from the upkeep of the fleet and its personnel.

THE PLEA FOR EXPANSION

The future naval base in PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental still awaits development.
Screenshot from Naval Shipyard 78th Anniversary AVP

While the plans presented by the leadership for improving and expanding the footprint of the Philippine Navy across the country come as a welcome development on their own, the pace at which the developments undertaken at the time this article has published presents the underlying concern, specifically regarding to its materialization timeline as compared to the fast turnout of the newly produced hulls that the service branch currently has in its timeline.

Apparently, it points to the complete absence of any development in the future PHIVIDEC Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental citing the need for land titling, along with the slow progress of both the reclamation and construction of key facilities in Naval Base Rafael Ramos in Mactan Cebu. 

Both of which might present additional problems down the road, especially in of accommodating large vessels belonging to the Offshore Combat Force in terms of infrastructure for mooring and extensive maintenance purposes.

The presented slow overall progress and absence, if lack of development thereof, presents a problem particularly that the service branch has multiple acquisition projects that is currently in the queue, and is likely to get into active service five years from the time this article gets published. Currently, there are still four (4) offshore patrol vessels in production on top of two (2) already in service, plus the added order for two (2) additional full complement frigates along with the plans of transferring several Abukuma-class destroyer escorts and some other hull that the service branch has plans of in the future.

Going further into ongoing plans for development, there were expansion plans that did not come to fruition, as naval facility-building has ties to the primary key acquisition program of the Philippine Navy that has prospects for ‌expanded capability building. 

One of the said proposals presented involves Naval Group, a French shipbuilder, whereby they gave a facility development proposal for Naval Operating Base Subic plus a submarine pen attached to its Scorpene offer for the service branch’s Submarine Acquisition Project.

Of course, the shortcomings mentioned do not dismiss the ongoing efforts of the leadership within the service branch and the Armed Forces of the Philippines at large in expanding its footprint in the country and in plans of adding facilities for added logistical and maintenance purposes, although the acknowledgement presented between the timeline difference of introducing new hulls to the fleet and building the facilities that can accommodate and upkeep such hulls is a necessity for its immediate resolution.

LOOKING FORWARD

While part of the Philippine Navy's naval facilities expansion, Naval Detachment Oyster Bay deserves its own separate topic.
From Prime Marquez Portfolio WordPress.

Modernizing the Philippine Armed Forces goes beyond just talking about the specifications of military hardware or even the numbers that the end user from any of the three service branches of the organization, as the rationale of procurement also likely comes with the consideration not only with the sound doctrine that the Philippine military tries to achieve, but also on the current availability of facilities and the plans laid into expanding it to accommodate the expansion of bought military hardware.

The ongoing plans of the Philippine Navy into expanding its existing naval facilities and even going further than just establishing new ones serve as a testament of their ongoing pursuit of an enlarged footprint, aiming that an expanded coverage will help the service branch carry out their intended mandate, ensuring smooth operations of their naval assets maintained into prospective additional facilities for upkeep, while complementing the presence made by multiple naval stations dotted across the country.

Of course, while this topic only entails the expansion of the service branch’s primary naval facilities as mentioned, there are other areas in the country that sees development that have not discussed thoroughly in this article, such as the case of ongoing expansion taking place in Naval Detachment Oyster Bay that involves a dedicated facility intended for unmanned surface vessels or USVs. Given its unique nature, the developments relating to the Palawan-based naval detachment will come with its own discussion.

Focusing once again on the aforementioned primary naval facilities mentioned, there is a mix of optimism and a plea where, in summary, comes with the intention that the ongoing developments surrounding the planned expansions of existing naval bases and opening additional ones should have the implementation with time element into consideration, as the pace of modernization comes not only with the timely delivery of vessels under the contract but also on the overall readiness in having available facilities for its sustainment.

Ultimately, the expansion of the primary naval facilities of the Philippine Navy and the service branch’s footprint of an expanded presence for its sustainment infrastructure across the country comes alongside its ongoing pursuit of fleet expansion aligning to the ongoing Revised AFP Modernization Program, as its establishment comes as equally important to the procurement of highly capable hulls packed with firepower that is a usual theme among the discussions surrounding military defense and security at-large.

(c) 2026 PDA.

Published from a station in Eastern Visayas. 

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