Strategic partnership with Japan

The Marcos administration is on the right track in strengthening security cooperation with our neighbor Japan amid increased tension in the South China Sea.

We have begun to enhance defense ties with Japan with the recent acquisition by the Philippine Air Force of a warning and control radar system built by Mitsubishi Electric Corp.

This is the first of four long-range surveillance radars—three of them fixed and one in a mobile setup—ordered by the Department of National Defense in 2020 under a P5.5-billion government-to-government deal.

This radar system, which will operate as part of our integrated air defense system, will enable the military to detect potential aerial and naval threats from greater distances with increased precision, giving us quicker response times to intercept, according to the PAF.

The Japanese-built radar system is stationed at Naval Station Ernesto Ogbinar, a former US air base known as Wallace Air Station, that retired its US-made air surveillance radars in use since the 1950s.

The defense contract with Japan is significant as this is among the first that it has made after ending decades of a self-imposed ban on arms exports in 2014.

We need to keep watch over 7,000 of our islands.

The PAF needs the radar system to monitor the entire archipelago with greater accuracy and efficiency.

This becomes especially crucial given the evolving security landscape in the region.

The radar system has a range of up to 556 kilometers for air targets and more than 926 km for ballistic missiles.

The package includes radar support facilities and a command and control building located a few meters away from the radar tower.

The next three radar systems are expected to be delivered in the next two years.

Our hope is that bilateral cooperation with Japan will contribute to peace and stability in the region.

Tokyo’s continued support for our country’s military buildup reflects its grave concern over China’s recent increasingly aggressive behavior toward our Coast Guard vessels in the West Philippine Sea.

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. is correct in pointing out that the radar upgrade is “one of the concrete steps that our strategic partner Japan has done in order to firm up our alliance.”

Japan has also pledged to provide a $4-million coastal radar surveillance system to the Philippine Navy under Tokyo’s new official security assistance program.

We need to strengthen defense cooperation with Japan and other allied countries while we ramp up efforts to build a credible defense posture against any threats to our national sovereignty and territorial integrity in the years ahead.

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