Asia-Pacific

US installs precision system in Philippine airforce

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-07-30 17:09

MANILA - The United States has started implementing a program aiming to prove the precision capability of Philippine military aircraft and help the country in its fight against terrorist groups and other armed groups, the Philippine defense department said Friday.

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"It's a program for the enhancement of the precision capabilities of the aircraft that is supporting our ground troops in the South. So the equipment that will be provided will be basically some software and other equipment which will allow us to perform this enhanced precision capability for the Air Force basically," Department of National Defense spokesman Eduardo Batac.

The $4 million project, inclusive of softwares, will be installed to OV-10 planes used by the military in dropping bombs and firing rockets at enemy positions.

The Philippine air force currently has OV10s although only 10 are operational. Batac stopped short of saying how many aircraft will be equipped with the system.

But once completed, Batac said, the aircraft equipped with enhanced precision capabilities can deliver munitions on the enemy even when there is limited visibility.