PN chief eyes 2nd US warship, downplays collision near Spratlys

The Philippine Navy will likely get its 2nd Hamilton-class cutter next year, boosting its capability to patrol the country’s maritime borders even as it races to finally acquire missiles for its ships.

But Vice Adm. Alexander Pama, Navy Flag Officer-in-Command (FOIC), said the bigger challenge is not in getting the new weapons the Philippine Navy needs but in improving its “absorptive capacity” to operate and maintain them.

“We have to consider everything,” he told ABS-CBN News. “Buying equipment is the easiest thing to do. The more difficult part is the capability of people because for so long we were concentrated on helping in the counter-insurgency effort.

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