MANILA, (PNA) — To beef up the capabilities of the Philippine Navy (PN), the Department of National Defense (DND) announced that it will setting aside P18-bilion to acquire two brand-new frigates.
The contract includes ammunition for the ships’ weapons system.
Interested bidders must have completed a similar project within the last 10 years.
Winner bidders are required to deliver the frigates within 1,460 calendar days from the opening of the letter of credit.
Pre-bid conference will be held in Oct. 11 with first stage bid to held this coming Oct. 25.
Both will be held at the DND Bidding Awards Committee Conference Room, Basement, DND Building, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
The option to acquire brand-new frigates for the Navy came in wake of the decision to forego the acquisition of Italy’s Maestrale-class frigates due to evaluation studies that found out operating these vessels will be more costly in the long run.
“We found out that it will be more expensive to maintain second hand vessel(s) than buying a new one,” the DND earlier said.
The Maestrale was earlier touted by the DND as the next ships to be acquired for the Philippine Navy due to its credible missile and anti-submarine capabilities.