The Philippine Air Force has acquired rockets and other munitions from the United States recently to fill up its inventory.
An Air Force C-130 cargo plane flew to Tuscon, Arizona in the US to pick up the weapons late June, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters on Tuesday.
“Nagpadala tayo ng isang (We sent a) C-130 to bring them here. Sa mga eroplano ‘yun (For the airplanes), not the ammunition for the firearms,” he said.
The C-130 plane returned to the Philippines last July 1. A separate statement from the Air Force said that the cargo plane flew 14,000 nautical miles, considered as one of the longest transpacific flights of the Filipino airmen.
Lorenzana could not immediately say the cost of the acquired equipment, however.
He also said that the new weapons were purchased before the Marawi crisis.
“Even before Marawi, meron tayong stockpile na mga rockets saka mga bombs na (We had a stockpile of rockets and bombs that) we were able to deplete, na naubos sa Marawi (It was finished due to the Marawi crisis) so it’s just normal for us to stockpile again,” Lorenzana said.
“For other purposes din, hindi lang naman Marawi ito e, patapos na ang Marawi. Hindi na natin magagamit ‘yung iba dyan e,” he added.
(They’re also for other purposes, not only for Marawi because that will soon be over. We can’t use some of them already.)
Some of the purchased items were bombs for the FA-50 fighter jets, one of the air assets used in airstrikes in Marawi City. JE