Teodoro: Submarine substitutes ‘will do’ for now in PH EEZ operations

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.

MANILA, Philippines — In the absence of a submarine to protect the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), substitute or alternative capabilities “will do,” according to Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr.

However, Teodoro noted that the military will eventually need a submarine as it expands its operational domain in the future.

“Naturally, with submarines, I believe that there will come a time, perhaps we will be needing them when we have to secure our supply chains and the Philippine Navy evolves into an expeditionary securing force for Philippine vessels,” Teodoro said in an interview in the podcast of maritime expert Ray Powell aired on Tuesday.

“At the present time, I believe, in the area of operations that we have in our EEZ, perhaps alternate or substitute capabilities will do,” he added.

Teodoro also emphasized the need for “hybrid capabilities like drones and other unmanned weapon systems,” which include unmanned surface vessels (USVs).

The Philippine Navy (PN) currently operates four T-12 Manta USVs, according to Marine Capt. Joshua Estrada, a liaison officer at the United States Embassy in Manila, recently spoke to the American military magazine Stars and Stripes.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III, during a visit to the Western Command headquarters in Palawan last year, said Washington would provide additional T-12s to Manila under its $500 million (P29.3 billion) foreign military financing program.

READ: US, PH alliance to ‘transcend’ changes of administration – Austin

Powell said the T-12s could be considered a substitute for submarines.

“They would be a start, as they do have some limited submersible capabilities,” Powell, program head of Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told Inquirer on Thursday.

However, Powell said the military “will need to develop a much more robust undersea force if it is going to credibly detect, monitor, and hold at risk China’s substantial manned and unmanned subsurface forces.”

In April, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, spokesperson of the Philippine Navy for the West Philippine Sea, said that three of the four submersibles recently found in the country’s waters are highly likely to be of Chinese origin, based on forensic analyses conducted with the assistance of the United States.

“It’s very clear that these are used for mapping out the underwater terrain, collecting information,” he had said in a press conference at that time.

In February 2024, Trinidad said the PN needed three submarines to fulfill its mandate of protecting the maritime domain.

READ: PH Navy needs 2 to 3 submarines, says spox

In 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the government plans to acquire a submarine, though he noted that the PN is currently focused on developing its anti-submarine capabilities.

READ: SEA power pursuit? Bongbong Marcos says gov’t plans to acquire PH’s first-ever submarine

According to Marcos, several countries, including France, have offered to manufacture submarines for the Philippines.

As an archipelago with one of the world’s longest coastlines and ongoing territorial disputes with neighbors like China, the Philippines has fallen behind in the regional submarine race.

Currently, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Singapore all operate submarines./mcm