Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Friday the Philippines will be acquiring more missiles to arm the coming ships of the Philippine Navy.

Lorenzana made the announcement following the successful test-firing of the first missile system onboard the Multi-Purpose Attack Craft (MPAC) MKIII of the Philippine Navy at the vicinity of Lamao Point, Bataan on Thursday.

“We are getting more of those because we are acquiring more vessels,” he said.

The live test firing which was witnessed by the Philippine Navy Flag Officer in Command, Vice Admiral Robert Empedrad with other senior Navy leaders and Department of National Defense (DND) Defense Acquisition Office representatives on board the MPACs is part of the Sea Acceptance Test (SAT) for the acquisition of the missile system.

Commander Jonathan Zata, Philippine Navy spokesman, said the test firing activity include the SAT for the Mini Typhoon Machine Gun System (MGS) and SAT for the spike-extended range Missile Launching System (MLS).

"The activity is necessary to test, inspect and accept the weapons and its systems in accordance with the contract for the final acceptance of the system," he said.

Zata said during the testing a spike-extended range missile was fired and accurately hit the designated target at approximately 6 km away from the firing platform.

“The target was hit dead center even if the sea state condition was moderately rough with wave of at least one meter high but within the normal firing conditions of the missile,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS

Lorenzana also mentioned that the Philippines is also set to acquire six off shore patrol vessels from an Australian shipbuilder.

“We will order six off-shore patrol vessels, it will be built in our country, in Cebu, it will be built by Austal, it is, this is a subsidiary of the Austal in Australia, at Balamban (municipality in Cebu) , so this is good because it will be made in the Philippines,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS