Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Force Projection






Everything you are about to hear must never leave this room. What I will tell you concerns not only our national security, but also the state's holdings scattered across the Spratlys.

First off, we shall stop calling the South China Sea as West Philippine Sea. Renaming a body of water with a name only this government recognize not only sounds silly, it makes our claims look desperate. Tell the media to use the old name again. West Philippine Sea isn't even mentioned in our children's textbooks yet.

There should be news blackout of all our military maneuvers west of Palawan.  The people do not need to know, nor should the Chinese too.

However, all ships of the republic conducting oil exploration, large-scale fishing and scientific survey must be equipped with cameras. The world must know - through third party sources - that our civilians are being harassed by these yellow bastards.

The navy needs to send our aging corvettes to the Spratlys. If someone asks, tell them they're on a mission to guard our waters from smugglers coming from Vietnam. Of course, we should coordinate this with the Vietnamese authorities. Tell them we're actually hunting for Chinese poachers destroying our reefs.

Most of  these old ships will be sent to be grounded on beach heads. The corvettes will serve as permanent outposts on some of the strategic islets. They will be equipped with beds, solar panels, small desalination plants and even spare parts for boat engines. Did I mention that these outposts will be manned by women? Who said we're arming ourselves. Our female soldiers are there to assist our fishermen.

Now let's discuss our military's more pressing concerns.




F/A 18 Hornet



A country without a fixed-wing aircraft is better off without an air force. The very reason we are being bullied by China is because we don't have a single fighter jet at our disposal. Contact the Spanish Embassy at once.  I've heard they are short of cash lately. Being a former colony, they might be interested to sell a squadron of F/18 Hornet at a  lower price. In exchange, mandatory teaching of Spanish in elementary will be put into effect.

Finally, the country needs a navy that can see eye to eye with its rivals. This time, we shall stop asking for hand-me-downs and decommissioned warships. Instead, the Philippines will acquire a more modern fleet from a country other than the United States.  So far, the Koreans seem to be the best choice. Not only do they build warships and sell them commercially, they would be sympathetic to our cause knowing we have a common threat.




Ulsan Class Frigate - BRP Lapu Lapu



Now sourcing the funds for  these upgrades will be nearly impossible. Not to mention, the project is downright ambitious. But this is the price we have to pay should we decide to arm ourselves and assert our borders.  The sale of Camp Aguinaldo to a Korean conglomerate would get the job done -  but this will stir a controversy this administration may not be able to deflect. Sooner or later, someone will discover these plans and accuse us of wasting our budget on things the country hardly needs.

Therefore, the burden will still be carried by the nation. Keep in mind that diplomacy is for the weak and Beijing gets away with lip service.

Truth remains, the choice is yours.



Fictional National Defense Council Meeting
including the Senate President and Speaker of the House
Manila, Republic of the Philippines




15 comments:

Sean said...

lol! i remember that the chinese govt released a video of an airforce exercise which apparently included clips lifted from the movie top gun (or was it iron eagle). maybe we can commission star cinema or an indie film outfit to showcase a non-existent fleet of fighters and ships and release it to cnn.

Mugen said...

Sean:

Nice idea. But if it gets discovered, shame on us. Lolz.

Sean said...

hahaha oo nga. baka may maligaw pang lumilipad na captain barbell at darna sa footage. ngek!

Spiral Prince said...

Grabe Kuya Joms. Parang I feel the gravity of our powerlessness should a war break out. Wag naman sana....



...I'm still a virgin!


WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!


seriously, though, I do not wars.

:(

zeke said...

Aggressive and mammoth, this projection is! lol

I can't wait for the "appointment" of another dictator. To be honest, Marcos' Red Army training would have been the best ammunition to this deranged frenzy of China. Just to supplement the fact that our best natural resource is our manpower.

Had he continued at least a year more after he was thrown, our military would've been the best in Asia. We will never get offended by these minor undertakings.

Nate said...

@mugen: oh wow! you're really hooked on this topic.. it showed the tactician side of you..

Anonymous said...

Hi Joms regarding the naming of the "West Philippine Sea" it's actually common in most naval conflicts around the world to do so, The Falklands was named Malvinas by the Argentineans and the Sea of Japan is being called East Korean Sea by the Koreans, naming it as such I guess is just a normal propaganda ploy amongst military strategist.

On weaponry: (Ships)
You suggested an Ulsan Class frigate by South Korea. A similar ship was purchased by Bangladesh but they had a hard time putting that ship into service because of design flaws and its naval electronics suit's unsuitability to tropical waters, looking at the possible threats and environment of the Spratleys. I would prefer if the navy would have just put a small a small number of high speed corvette and shallow water attack submarines which is less detectable by radar and sonar and cost a lot less to maintain (besides Spratleys consists mostly of shallow waters in which subs can hid besides the rocks or at the shallow ocean floor). Judging from recent naval combats(Falklands ,Gulf etc), Frigates and Destroyers are big targets in the ocean regardless of its advance weaponry and electronics, it is very susceptible to current models of anti ship missiles that both the Chinese and Vietnamese navy has

Another thing is that the naval structure and doctrine must be changed to a network centric capability similar to what the Swedes did in order to counter the threat of the much larger Soviet navy in their waters. In fact the Swedish Navy Model is what I wish for the Philippine navy to look at. The Swedes designed their Navy in a way that it could be maintained at low cost yet very much capable in defending their waters which is very applicable to us because we still need the money to spend for education etc.

Weaponry: (Combat aircraft)
I’m actually surprised that you know that Spain operates F-18’s, but I doubt whether these were well maintained in comparison to other operators of the aircraft. Their models are based F-18A/B which is the first models of the aircraft and has not gone from any upgrades since it deliveries in the late 80’s and these models are modified for air defence usage only. The US Navy meanwhile has just recently retiring some of their F-18C/D(second latest after E/F) which has gone through a mid life update and is “wired” to carry anti ship missile and holds a radar that can track targets on the sea surface which is very much what we need.

One thing pala Joms I noticed that this conflict brings the worst of the mal-education of our politicians when it comes to handling conflicts ,it’s a pity many of them holds foreign degrees but are total dimwits in making military polices and diplomacy and making use of international connections and laws and the poor military itself is being blamed left and right as if it is not stretching itself to the very limit of its capacity. Teka makapag kape muna bago uminit ulo ko hehe….

-Gripen

bien said...

NKKLK. Naalala ko bigla yung mga pre-employment exams sa Pinas..

What do you think is the writer's primary objective with this essay?
a)Humor
b)Critical
c)Sarcasm
d)Factual
etc etc etc

Mugen said...

Bien:

Actually hindi ko rin alam kung ano ang objective nitong entry na ito eh. Basta continuation siya nung "The Tactician" Heheh

Nate:

History and Current Events are two subjects I enjoy discussing. :D

Spiral Prince:

When you read Gripen's reply, his suggestions would empower you. Don't worry, a ground invasion would never happen.

Mugen said...

Sean:

Hahaha. Riot yun pag nagkataon. :D

Green Breaker:

I think we're on the opposite side of the fence on this one. :)

I was born in 1981.

Jpy Dee said...

sana madaan sa maayos na usapan ang issue na ito.

jusko. hindi pa ako nagkakajowa. ayokong mamatay sa giyera. CHAR!!! :P

Mugen said...

Gripen:

Mas mahaba pa yata yung comment mo kesa sa entry ko ah. But I studied your points word for word. Here are my thoughts.

On Propaganda:

Hate the jingoists. They're the reason wars exist.

On Weaponry: Ulsan Class Frigate

Heard the Bangladesh purchase was tainted with corruption. Perhaps they asked the Koreans to cut corners.

I still have faith with them. Next option would be the Swedes or the Japanese.

Yup, tama ka nga. Yung Swedish war doctrine ang appropriate sa atin. Read it on Wikipedia last night. Problem is, the title of this piece is Force Projection. I agree with you though that we should have small, agile vessels that can protect our islets in Kalayaan.

Weapons: Fighter Jets

While the Spanish F-18s are less maintained than the US models, the Americans are too far indebted to Beijing to sell us their fighters.

^travis said...

@ Gripen: okay un info about the Swedish navy. that deserves further study. thanks for pointing that out.

with so much info available and no shortage of experts, it's a pity that we still can't make up our minds.

Anonymous said...

@mugen

haha sencia I need a heavy distraction last night lolz

-Gripen

Mugen said...

Grips:

Hay nako. You should be blogging again. Hehe. Ikaw ang expert sa ganito eh. What I write about is just a mere echo of what you're passionate about. :)

Sana okay ka na.

Travis:

Sadly, we only want to hear what our ears want to hear.

Jepoy:

Walang mangyayaring gera, that's for sure. Masyado tayong duwag para dun. Hehehe.