Philippine Navy takes delivery of two additional fast attack boats

The Philippine Navy has taken delivery of two new fast attack interdiction craft (FAIC) built by a collaboration between the navy and Israel Shipyards. The vessels are the seventh and eighth in the Acero-class FAICs, which are variants of the Shaldag-class patrol boats built by Israel Shipyards for the Israeli Navy and export customers.

The two new FAICs, which have been temporarily designated PG 908 and PG 909, arrived in Manila earlier this month. Like their Acero-class sisters, they will replace the Tomas Batilo-class patrol craft that were acquired from South Korea in the mid-1990s.

The FAICs each have an LOA of 32.65 metres, a beam of 6.2 metres, a displacement of approximately 95 tonnes at full load, and space for 12 crewmembers. Two diesel engines will propel each vessel to a maximum speed of 43 knots while a range of 1,600 nautical miles can be achieved at a cruising speed of 15 knots.

Each vessel's armament consists of Rafael Spike NLOS anti-ship missiles, a Bushmaster 30mm autocannon, two Browning M2 12.7mm machine guns, and M60 7.62mm general purpose machine guns. The autocannon and the 12.7mm machine guns are mounted on Rafael Typhoon remote weapon stations while the 7.62mm guns are manually operated.