PAF chief says over 400 ‘unknown’ airspace tracks not hostile

Screen shot from AFP Instagram account @teamafp

MANILA, Philippines — While details are thin about the 400 “unknown” tracks detected in the country’s airspace, one thing is for sure: they are not hostile.

Philippine Air Force (PAF) chief Lieutenant General Stephen Parreño made the assurance in response to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s remark about the unknown tracks.

Marcos, during the 77th PAF anniversary celebration last July 1, said the 400 unknown tracks were monitored in the Philippine Air Defense Identification Zone, according to news reports.

“These are not hostile,” Parreño said in a regular press briefing held at PAF headquarters in Villamor Air Base, citing their flight patterns, speed, and altitude.

Parreño said their tracks were tagged as “unknown” only because they were not registered.

“It reflects the capability of the Philippine Air Force now to monitor all of these — previously we didn’t have [the capability]; we had limited capabilities,” he said.

Meant for the use of PAF, Japan’s TPS-P14ME, a mobile-type long-range air surveillance radar that provides high-resolution surveillance of air assets, arrived in the country last April.

READ: New mobile radar system from Japan arrives in Philippines

Aside from the mobile radar, there is also a fixed radar system installed at the Wallace Air Station in San Fernando City, La Union.

These two radars delivered are among the four units worth P5.5 billion procured by the Department of National Defense as part of the Horizon Two or second phase of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ modernization program.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said that the remaining two fixed radar systems are expected to arrive in the country two years from now.