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| AFP is Army Centered? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 12 2011, 03:26 AM (1,361 Views) | |
| Dodgeball | Jul 12 2011, 03:26 AM Post #1 |
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I got found this from the other forum. So true. portion from today's "DEMAND & SUPPLY" by Boo Chanco/Philippine Star link here: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publi...rticleId=704775 I received this e-mail from a retired air force officer. I always read your column and I find them very informative. You must be reading a lot about our ‘Spratlys’ claim in our Exclusive Economic Zone. Please let me share my humble views. I joined the Phil Air Force and stayed till I retired. Sometime when I was still a young Major, I was assigned in the Plans and Program Division, (DCS PLANS.OJ-5) of the Armed Forces and was privy to many the plans of the AFP to ‘modernize’. We would rather call them Refurbish since to modernize would mean procuring the F15 Eagle or F16 Falcon aircraft. These fighter aircrafts are way beyond our budget. I can tell you a lot of information on WHY our Phil Air Force is so decrepit provided you don’t put my name because I would not want to be called a squealer. We lack modern fighter aircraft due to the extreme neglect of the higher echelon in Camp Aguinaldo. Visit Basa Air Base, the “home and roost of the FIGHTERS”. The place is now a far cry from what it was in the 1960s when the PAF was a respected air force in South East Asia. Now, the place is a down trodden wasteland without a single flyable fighter aircraft... Believe me. Maiiyak ka. Why or how did this happen? Was it the fault past Air Force leaders? Certainly NOT. It is in the military culture not to complain. Nobody is talking. The problem is the AFP is too Army dominated. For the past 30 years much of the AFP budget has gone to the army. Why do we have 10 Infantry divisions when the insurgency is actually a function of the Police....The Muslim insurgency started in 1970 just after the so called Jabidah killings. Until now no end in sight. Sri Lanka (poorer than us) solved their insurgency two years ago. But in Mindanao: the PEACE TALKS always fail.There is still is no solution? This will be a controversial assertion: does the ARMY want to prolong the WAR so that the AFP budget will always go to maintenance of Army battalions? Almost 90 to a hundred already and still counting. They cost billions to maintain. Way back in 1989, when the Chinese were starting to put up structures around our EEZ, then DND Secretary Renato De Villa had proposed plans to reduce the AFP Area Commands and the Infantry. Without endangering the internal defense posture, Secretary De Villa asserted this organizational restructuring plan will just free up billions of pesos so they could be used to buy one or two squadrons of jet fighter aircraft for the Air Force, and several missile firing frigates for the Navy. Unfortunately this plan remained a DREAM, It was never implemented. Until now we keep on depending on American assistance. Certainly, they will come to our support provided it suits their own interests. We are so naive. But can we really afford a strong air force and navy to protect our very rich EEZ. The Chinese are now about to humiliate our decrepit Armed Forces. The DND Secretary’s proposal was for increasing budget support for the PAF and PN without diminishing the Internal defenses. He proposed a nucleus of 2 to 3 Infantry Divisions to be supported by ten Reserve (but well equipped,well trained) Divisions that would have been cheaper to maintain. Presently, the Army has ten infantry divisions!!! against an NPA force of some four to five thousand guerrilas or terrorists). Since one Division comes to ten thousand then it’s a 100,000 man army against 4000 NPAs. Big budget. But what happened to the de Villa proposal? More Area Commands were created because the insurgency was getting bigger(?). That early in 1990s, the insurgency was supposed to be the responsibility of the newly separated INTEGRATED NATIONAL POLICE. But fighting Insurgency remains the chief function of the Armed Forces until now. Look back at our Air Force. Basa Air Base does not even have a single vintage 1965 F5 fighter jet flying. Only around two to four S 211 Italian-made jet trainers which are subsonic remain at Basa. The S 211 is no match for the Chinese. More than 60 percent of the budget of the AFP always went to the ground troops at the expense of the Navy and the Air Force. No wonder there is an exodus of PAF flying officers to the airline industry. But we are about to be humiliated by China’s air force and navy. No Filipino would want his own military to be massacred in the Spratlys. I don’t think we are so poor we cannot afford one or two squadrons of Jet Interceptors and several missile firing frigates for the navy. It is just a question of changing priorities. INTERNAL DEFENSE can be HANDLED BY THE POLICE, while the ARMED FORCES particularly the Air Force and Navy should get more support to face the critical EXTERNAL DEFENSE situation. The resources rich Spratlys and the EEZ will need a strengthened Navy and Air Force. Unlike the Vietnamese whom the Chinese humiliated in a 1988 naval encounter, we are lucky we have not yet been really confronted. But there may not be a third or fourth verbal warning next time...They could come back with a flight of Sukhoi bombers and several navy destroyers sinking our valiant Rajah Humabon defending the Reed Bank exploration site. What good will all those Army battalions do? |
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| Dodgeball | Jul 12 2011, 03:33 AM Post #2 |
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What if we disband the AFP and have three separate military branches under the DND? Army, Navy, and Air Force? From what I can see, the AFP leadership is dominated by Army officers whose priorities lie on the Army. |
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| Spidey | Jul 12 2011, 10:54 AM Post #3 |
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We still need the Army bro, no war can be won by MRFs or frigates alone. |
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| Dodgeball | Jul 12 2011, 02:16 PM Post #4 |
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I'm not saying we disband the Army. I'm saying we "break up" the AFP, separate the Army, Air Force, and Navy into individual military branches reporting directly to the DND. This creates a clear division between responsibilities. The Army responsible for land defense, the Navy on the sea, the Air Force on the air. From what I can see, the AFP leadership is full of Army generals who prioritize the Army greatly neglecting the Navy and the Air Force. The AFP Chief is always an Army four-star. |
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| Spidey | Jul 12 2011, 02:36 PM Post #5 |
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So what you mean is the CSAFP is scrapped & chiefs of 3 branches are co-equals reporting directly to DND Sec.? I think this setup is unwieldy and will only enhance interservice rivalry and the typical Pinoy attitude of 'teritoryo mo yan, problema mo na yan'. |
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| Dodgeball | Jul 12 2011, 10:30 PM Post #6 |
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Why not? With a unified military organization led and staffed mostly by Army generals, a huge chunk of the budget is always allocated to the Army. The Army gets the top priority when in fact it is already over-manned to fight an internal war against rebels. If we have separate branches under the DND, their chiefs would equally get what they want for their respective forces. |
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| digme | Jul 13 2011, 03:47 AM Post #7 |
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Three consecutive times has the AFP army succeeded in raiding three NPA camps and four consecutive times had they killed 18 NPAs in a span of 3 months. They have a secret weapon which was used during the times of the Roman empire and another used during World War 1. Walang katalo-talo, mga repapipay...We cannot operate without you, Victor Corpus, ang "komunistang" nagpabagsak sa NPA!!! hi hi hihi hi |
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| Dodgeball | Jul 13 2011, 08:45 PM Post #8 |
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Here is what I envision. The Army is responsible for all land operations, ie, territorial defense / internal conflicts. Area commands (northcom wesmincom, centcom, etc) are to be reformed into "divisions" led by two-stars. Each division has a number of modular brigade combat teams. This helps reduce the number of generals in the AFP. The Army also has an aviation command which works much like today's Light Armor Division, providing helicopter battalions to the divisions. The Air Force is responsible for territorial air defense and other services such as airlift and missile defense. It operates mainly fixed-wing aircrafts and only a very few choppers. Reporting directly to the PAF chief are the various wings. The Navy is responsible for the defense and of seas and sea lanes. It also includes the Marine Corps, which is pretty much like the Navy's own private army. The Navy is divided into the West Philippine Sea Fleet and other "area fleets" and type commands. All these branches do not report to a four-star Army general CSAFP. They have their own separate chiefs, HQs, and report directly to DND and the President. In this way, the roles of each services will be clearly defined. It also helps reduce the number of generals in the military. Currently we have too many area commands and too many infantry divisions. I find them redundant, especially the 1st and 6th ID, why can't they be just one division when they are facing the same OPFOR? And the 4th and 10th ID as well? Inter-service rivalry? I think that cannot be prevented, unified or not. Remember the Burnham case? The Marines should have rescued them when the Army suddenly showed up and created havoc resulting to the death of Martin Burnham. Why did that happen? Because the chief of wesmincom at the time is an Army general. He wants a share (or all) of the glory for his boys. Inter-service rivalry is normal, however, it encourages the branches to be better than the other and the result with be great. |
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| atreidesx69 | Jul 13 2011, 11:08 PM Post #9 |
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The way I see it, the PNP can be relied on to keep the peace, but only in metropolitan and suburban areas. Throw them at the NPA and Muslim separatists in the countryside, especially in the jungles and mountains then they would be chewed to pieces. That is why the Army is still the one who does the dirty job. With the limited budget of the AFP, then it logically follows that the internal threat will be prioritized, rather than external, hence the AFP being Army centered. But even then, our brave infantrymen are still under-equipped, and under-nourished to boot. Lump into that the corruption inherent in the higher echelons of the officer corps, then it makes into a really weak AFP. Congress should look into raising the percentage of the annual budget to be allocated for Defense. Then clean up the corruption in the AFP. Only then would we realize a stronger Air Force and Navy. |
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| Dodgeball | Jul 13 2011, 11:54 PM Post #10 |
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^^ I agree. Though I believe there has to some sort of a reorganization of the military. Would it be appropriate for the Navy and Air Force to answer to a CSAFP who is an Army general? What I am trying to assert here is that the Army, Navy, and Air Force be co-equals under the DND, not unified under a single HQ which is dominated by Army officials. I understand the ongoing counterinsurgency campaign and the Army is doing well with that along with the Navy and the Air Force. But would it be feasible to break them apart and let the Navy concentrate on naval warfare and the PAF on air defense? I believe so. These are three different military branches with different missions. So I guess they have to separated. |
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