The Department of National Defense has awarded the joint venture of Filipino shipbuilder Propmech Corporation and Taiwanese builder Lung Teh Shipbuilding Co. the contract to build three (3) Multi-purpose Attack Crafts with contract price of PhP268,880,000, a document from PhilGEPS states. Award date is February 5. The approved budget for the said procurement project was PhP270,000,000.
These MPACs, 17-meter Mk III, to be delivered within 365 days will be utilized as platforms for missile launch system and other weapons.
MPAC Mk III will have provisions for remote weapon system for 12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun M2HB; missile launch system and its respective remote operating console inside the craft. MPAC Mk III will also have provisions for two M60/7.62mm Light Machine Gun.
These three MPACs will also be capable of storing 2,000 rounds for 12.7mm, 4,000 rounds for 7.62mm and 10 canisters of surface-to-surface missiles.
Weapons and missiles will be procured in a separate project, Multi-Purpose Attack Craft Acquisition Project (Lot 2).
The Philippine Navy is known to be operating six MPACs which are not armed with missiles. Three, 15-meter Mk I, were built by Lung Teh while the other three, 17-meter Mk II, were built by Propmech.