The Philippine Navy plans to acquire two more ships with anti-submarine capability following the recent detection of a Russian submarine in the West Philippine Sea.

"We have submitted proposals for two more corvettes, I believe, or two more frigates," Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.

"These are modern warfare ships that could conduct the four domains of warfare," he added.

Trinidad noted the need to acquire more advanced naval assets amid changing maritime security threats.

"Yes, that need has been noticed by the Philippine Navy years ago. That's why in our Re-Horizon 3 that already includes more corvettes, more ships, and other anti-submarine warfare capabilities," he said.

The Russian submarine was first detected by the Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) capability of the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines when it surfaced 80 nautical miles off Lubang Island last November 28.

Trinidad said the AFP has " greater capabilities to monitor surface assets or surface tracks or contacts than what we have to detect underwater contacts."

"Our underwater, undersea warfare capability is still modest. It is still an ongoing development. We have that modest capability but we have greater capabilities to track surface assets, surface targets,'' he added.

However, Trinidad said the AFP is also eyeing to develop undersea warfare capability to be able to detect submerged submarine contacts.

"The broad program is to develop the AFP's capability for undersea warfare. Undersea warfare is a complex mix of different capabilities, details of which I could not divulge yet. But we leave it up to the Department of National Defense what particular capability for undersea warfare we would prioritize," he said. Robina Asido/DMS