PH needs US missile interceptors – AFP

San Antonio, Zambales - The Philippines needs the new US Marine Corps’ new short-range air defense system that was test-fired in the annual joint drills on Sunday, April 28, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said.

The Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) is one of the sophisticated weapons systems that the US had deployed overseas for the first time as the joint forces simulated live missile strikes near the West Philippine Sea.

Completing the MADIS formation are the Avengers and the Spyder, or the surface-to-air python and derby with radars and a longer range to intercept aerial threats.

Major Elree Cardeño, who is the AFP battery commander of the Spyder, said “sooner or later” the Philippines has to acquire new missile systems for a “layered air defense.”

“MADIS belongs to short-range air defense so it’s a kinetic counter-UAS. We need that to neutralize any threat, specifically drones and other small threats in our air space,” Cardeño told journalists who watched the missile strikes in the naval base in Zambales.

Over the weekend, complementing the MADIS exercises, Filipino and American forces also rehearsed deploying an anti-ship missile launcher, the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), in Batanes.

“MADIS is short-range. Spyder is more of a medium-range capability. Both engage different threats,” Lt. Col. Matthew Sladek, Commanding Officer of the US 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, told reporters.

“The more we work together, the more we seek to enhance our collective lethality,” he added.

The missile test strikes come as China claimed it had seized maritime control over Sandy Cay, a reef close to the Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea. On Monday, the Philippine Navy said China lied.

Both Manila and Washington said this year’s Balikatan is not a war plan against any adversary.

Asked on whether the sophisticated missile systems will not be pulled out after the three-week bilateral wargames, US army chief of the Avengers team Luis Rivera said: “They won’t be left here.”