Our army should have 3 Airborne Rangers regiments( for Luzon, Palawan, Mindanao), 400 pieces of shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, 1000 pieces shoulder fired anti-tank weapons, 30-Merkava Tanks, 40-155mm self propelled howitzers, 12-AH-1Z super cobras, 30-Blackhawks with stub wings soo we can armed them with hellfireor multiple rockets, haul in artillery closer to the fight and function also as troop transport, more MD-500 defenders bring the operational numbers up to 30, upgrade all m-113's to carry a 25mm gun.

Our Army is big enough 8 divisions. The 9th division should turn into a 3 airborne rangers regiments like I offer. It's not how many trigger pullers you got. It's all about how trained and equipped they are to fight and win a battle.

Bringing the number of scout rangers up to 3 regiments would take a lot of time. Even the US only has 1 Ranger regiment. Besides, we already have too many spec op troops as it is. We have the SFR, FSRR, and LRC for the Army.

IMO, the original SR team and the SF team is redundant, since both operate on a squad level. It would be better if we dissolve the LRC and put them in the FSRR, and make SRs operate on a company level, while leaving the squad/team operations to the SF so it will not be redundant.

I agree that we don't need a 9th ID. It would be good if we just maintain the 8 IDs and restructure the SOC so that units will not have overlapping missions making them more efficient in their respective fields.

The Philippine Army should provide emphasis on mechanization, which includes the downsizing of strength to at least six mechanized divisions employing armored vehicles that can provide effective direct-fire support during combat. At least one division should employ helicopters similar to that of the US army's 1st cavalry. Helicopter-borne infantry have the advantage of an overwhelming close air support, and a quick and easy entry/exit to and from a battlefield that armored vehicles cannot offer.

It is also necessary for the Philippine Army to have at least two airborne battalions under direct command of the PA HQ. Airborne infantry could be mass-dropped by C-130 to a disputed area in full-force, in no time, in ways helicopter assaults are unnecessary.

The Philippine Army should also be equipped with anti-aircraft units, with at least three battalion-sized formations.

The entire PA should be trained and equipped like the the LRC/FSRR


I have seen photos and videos of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, even soldiers not belonging to elite unit are equipped with NVG, body armor, helmet with headset radio, and handheld GPS device.

We don't need airborne since most of our battles are in the jungle where the trees and foilage would make it impossible to find a suitable LZ. Plain lands in between jungles are good ambush sites which furthers the impracticality of airborne in the Philippine setting.

Mechanized infantry is also not effective since we have small roads and the insurgents are armed with rpgs.

It would be better to invest in the regular infantry as what el_commandante mentioned, provide better infantry equipment such as kevlar helmets and vests, more comfortable combat boots, better camouflage uniforms (since our uniforms are so varied and they don't really camouflage soldiers in our terrain), better food rations, more radios, and NVG.

Also, we need to improve the training/instruction on cleaning the basic weapon, since most if not all of the M16's I hold have dirty chambers and barrels and unlubricated parts which, if left in the long run, would lessen the service life of the weapon.

We should also invest in our field artillery, obtaining the new, lightweight M102 105mm howitzer. The M102 is lighter than our older M101 which allows it to be airlifted by choppers with it's ammunition to strategic locations rather than taking time and being hauled by vehicles on the ground.

We must also invest in better training for our special units. We don't need more units, just better training. Take note, better doesn't equate to more. Quality beats quantity. There are so many super top secret high speed low drag special units made with the same purpose, which results in the budget being spread. We should remove the redundancy of these units and combine them, since having multiple units with the same purpose, as I said would just spread the budget thin.

The army is small comparing to the nation's population and its neighbors.

The army should be increase to at least 250,000 soldiers. It will consists of:
-16 infantry divisions
-special operation command: light reaction battalion, special forces, and scout ranger regiment(adding 5 companies)
-7 light tank battalions, each battalion will have 30 light tanks
-10 infantry brigades, half will be in the Visaya region because it is mostly islands.
-numerous support brigades, such as engineer, military police, medical, logistics, etc...

Instead of buying from the US, buy it somewhere cheaper such as South Africa or Brazil.

Philippines is one of the country in asia who have the smallest military and have the most rebels. That's why I sugested for the army to build a 3 Airborne Ranger regiments. They are the perfect unit to have cause they are very mobile and quick to respond by dropping them off into the fight using c-130's or huey's. Instead of adding more divisions into the current 8 divisions. Philippine army divisions are not really organized as a division is more like a regiment structure. A regular division has a 3 infantry brigades, 1 artillery battery, 1 armored battalion and 1 helicopter battalion. Instead of adding more divisions it's more reasonable to add highly trained and well armed 3 ranger regiments into the current army units. You can also improve your divisions strenght by incorporating there own armored, artillery and helicopter units so you can deploy them and trained them together on how to fight as a big team. You can also armed them with proper equipments instead of building more divisions. Also buy more C-130's soo you can send your troops to respond to any emergencies all over the country faster than any naval or ground transport.

Mechanized infantry don't work for your terrain. It's only good in protecting Manila and Malacanang palace. It will be to slow to deploy these units into the fight since your country is not one big island.

Before we even think of building more airborne units, we first need to have aircrafts to carry them in eh? Our division doesn't have a helicopter batallion. It has helicopters, but not nearly enough to even carry 1 company all at once.

I totally agree with equipments though. 8 Infantry Divisions are already enough. We just need to equip them with better and more effective gear for our terrain. Gears such as a more effective camouflage pattern, comfortable combat boots, better food rations, kevlar vests and helmets, NVG, well equipped armories to maintain weapons, and more ammunition for training. Soldiers who go through basic training rarely fire more than one magazine of ammunition. How can they be expected to hit the rebels?

since a mechanized army is not necessary, there should be emphasis on the fire team, one that is composed of a commander, a radioman, riflemen, machine gunner, marksman, corpsman, and heavy weapons crew armed with large caliber anti-armor weapons and mortars. their individual gear should include NVGs, infra red, kevlar vests, better helmets, and individual radios.

about the BDAs, I think the present camo pattern is useful in our environment, only the quality of the BDAs is not good. i noticed some of our soldiers wear uniforms whose patterns are losing their camouflage property.

First of all before we go out to those huge proposal lets go back to the basic needs first of the ordinary riffleman. A

1. Raise the monthly salary

2. Raise also there monthly food allowance.

3. Give their regular clothing needs.

4. Give them also the shelter and for their family.

5. all the necessary benefits should be given.

6. Give them the equal opportunity in every position available.

7. Give them the right support in the battle like ammuntion,medical needs, radios, guns
8. And Last, treat the ordinary foot soldier important as the generals do.

yan lang muna ang dapat i-address ngayon ng AFP

The best form of welfare of soldiers is first-rate training
-Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Wermacht (Afrika Korps)

:salute:

The Singapore Armed Forces number more than 100,000 out of a population of 4 million, which means only 2.5% of the population is in uniform.

Since the Filipino people number about 85 million, then the AFP should be at most 2,125,000.

Wala lang... :aberet:

We don't even have basic equipment and money for salary and benefits for 100,000+ soldiers, let alone 2.1 million?

choosing quantity over quality? :nono:

Other than we cant afford to maintain it, we can't even go beyond the CAFGU because we still lack trust in our people

Soldiers after receiving their new flak jackets...

We must satisfy first the needs of the ordinary foot soldier before venturing into expensive proposal. Nothing wrong in adding more 12 Battalion units but we must fullfill first the basic needs.

This is an effective way of improving the soldiers fighting capability and uplifting his future needs together with the family.

:agree:

Also, we must not forget the things that support these humble and selfless foot soldiers.

Air support and mobility are vital factors here.

They need to be given the needed capability to be transported fast enough to meet the enemy before the latter can escape.

They also need to be given the needed capability to be evacuated early enough when injured.

That entails the factor on SURVIVABILITY.

Yes, that's what you need to consider when you want more soldiers to stay safe enough to have more chances of getting back to their family alive ..... and not draped with a flag.

I agree that we have to increase not only of the Philippine Army but also the PMC as well. Our army is only 70,000 strong. We should have at least 100,000. Dapat mga 140,000 to 150,000-strong ang Army.

Yung Marines natin are limited by law to 7,000 enlisted men and 700 officers. I don't know when this law was made pero siguro wala pang 40 million ang population ng RP. It has now more than doubled. We should have at least 20,000 Marines.

I don't agree though with arming them with shoulder-fired, anti-armor weapons. Hindi naman magkakaroon ng mga T-72 MBT's ang mga NPA o MILF. What is really needed is to replace the aging M-16A rifles. Laspag na ang mga barrels nito.

:agree:

arm them with M4s.

I think they are issuing those to the PA units assigned in NCR first. it would take a long time to equip the whole army with those flak jackets, even those PASGT helmets.

Basically, majority of the Army modernization fund must go to the infantry, with priorities to include all infantrymen to be equipped with:

1. Quality (US grade, not cheap knock-offs) body armor and helmets
2. Comfortable combat boots
3. Better BDUs (which means better camouflage patterns since I see soldiers wearing different patterns which really cannot be called a 'uniform', and less maintenance/easier to wear like the new US uniform which do not need ironing)
4. New M16A2/A3s (not everyone needs to be equipped with M4s. M16s are still better for regular infantrymen) w/ compatible nato ammo M855 (not the old ammo for the A1 type barrels)
5. Better food rations similar to the US's MREs.

Not only Infantry Program Comrade Ian. Im also interested on the BATALLION RE TRAINING PROGRAM of the Philippine Army. I want to know the details of this program. I heard that the program is good.

I am not familiar with Batallion re-training programs. Where is it done? At their home division or at Tanay, Rizal?

what made you think that the m4 is better than the m16a2?

much lighter, much shorter, comes with a collapsible butt, fires the same ammo at the same range, much less prone to jamming, .. also, it looks good.

i heard the LRB will re-train the army battalions..
and maybe the marine battalion spec ops platoon will re-train the marine battalions :dunno:
question for sir MBLT, are the MBSOP the equivalent of the army LRC's?? thanks...
and can the PNP-SAF guys train with the army and marine grunts??

The Philippine Army should be:

250,000 soldiers

16 Infantry Divisions
10 Infantry Brigdaes
Special Operations Command:
-1 Scout Ranger Regiment
-1 Light Reaction Battalion
-1 Special Forces Group


300 Stingray Light Tanks
200 Armoured Fire Support Vehicles
800 APC/IFV
500 Artillery

150 Transport Helicopters
100 Attack Helicopters

no need to create additional divisions, these 8 division of ours are skeleton ones in terms of numbers.. i think a full division numbered about 45,000 men. we only need to maximize them. :dunno:

^ how about reducing the number of useless generals? heck! the Army has more generals than quality equipment. :headbang:

In the US army, a full army divisions is between 15,000 to 20,000. Depends of the type of division, whether its infantry(mechanized), light infantry, armoured, airborne or air assault.

Some time back (pakihanap na lang ang link), it was reported that:

1) the PA will be reorganizing its 8-9 divisions into 3 RDF divisions and 13 territorial brigades.

2) And, with battalion-sized units as the doctrinal basic fighting force (something like they were tired of company-sized or smaller detachments being constantly attacked by larger reb formations that would then later disperse into smaller units).

This follows the original modernization plan of 3 RDF Divs and 8 prepositioned (territorial) brigades (that would form the core of division-sized forces boosted by a reservists in case of war -- as in external aggression only, I suppose, not civil war or COIN).

Interesting how they plan to operationalize this. I guess it's already starting with reports of an ongoing "battalion retraining" program.

I'd think the PA could learn some on how to configure their 3 RDF divisions by looking at the PMC's RDF formation. The PMC, after all, is essentially a division-sized RDF with its 10 MBLTs and the supporting units. The MBLTs could also be a pattern for the PA's battalion-sized fighting units. Of course, the PA has its own history to look back to, with the Bn combat teams.

The 13 territorial brigades would likely be the ones who'd be trained to work closely with police and para-mil units to hold ground.

Reconfigured PA RDF Divs would boost the FSRR and rest of SOCOM units as "strike anywhere" forces deployable to major reb areas. Putting the pressure on, instead of just waiting to be attacked or ambushed. Maybe this means they'll be more proactive in going after rebs.
.

Batallion sized units sounds good as the basic fighting force of the PA. Company sized and smaller units are best left to the socom community.

Like I said, before we invest in other units, the infantry should go first. Followed by the artillery and armored units.

the philippine army should be MORE PROFESSIONAL.......

TRAINING should be emphasized over EQUIPMENT......

may gamit nga, pero di naman marunong mag-asinta ng baril.....
may gamit nga, pero binebenta ang mga bala nila sa mga locals.....
may gamit nga, pero useless kung hindi magagaling ang officers....
may gamit nga, pero against the civilian government naman ginagamit....
may gamit nga, pero ang dali mautakan ng maliliit na grupo ng mga npa.....

ok lang kahit lumiit tao ng army.... BASTA WELL TRAINED....

As what ive said in the past the Philippine Army has already a BATALLION RE TRAINING PROGRAM. This will start this year if the national budget will be approve.

my personal opinion, i would go to 3 RDF div consisting of around 15,000 personnel per each div. and 13 to 15 brigades with around 3,000-4,000 personnel each bgde (this also includes their own support units so they are "independent" i.e. flexible and can maneuver more agressively i.e. concentrate on the enemy more thoroughly), each brigade should have atleast 3 Battalion combat teams.

additional units for the PA are:

1 airborne brigade
1 divisional artillery (brigade) - independent
1 light armored brigade
1 air defence brigade - independent

just my opinion... :thumb:

a regular infantry division consists of:
3 infantry Brigades each brigade have there one LRRPS Long range reconasance patrol) platoon for gathering informations, specialize missions, and forward observers.

supported by:
1 Artillery battery
1 Armored battalion
1 Air defense company
1 Military Police brigade
1 Aviation battalion
1 combat engineers battalion

This unit train together as one team.