The U.S. will support Manila’s plan to build a new naval pier at a Philippine naval base in Subic Bay.
A 15-meter by 155-meter finger pier is set to be constructed at Naval Operating Base Subic, homeport of the Philippine Navy’s patrol vessels and frigates. According to the contract, the planning for the pier is under foreign military financing for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and will be in support of Naval Sea Systems Command’s International Fleet Support Program Office, known as PMS 326. Construction of the pier itself will be conducted by the Subic Drydock Corporation, a Philippine company.
In 2022, Manilla activated the base, located across the bay from the old American installations at the former Hanjin Heavy Industries Shipyard, to berth its larger warships at a strategic location in Western Luzon for sorties into the South China Sea. The Philippine Navy relied on civilian ports to dock its vessels before Naval Operating Base Subic’s opening. The Philippines leased around 100 acres of the former shipyard, which is now owned by the U.S. private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management.
The Philippines procured new frigates, patrol vessels and corvettes to bolster its fleet amid increasing tensions with Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea. However, many of these warships were the first of their kind for the Southeast Asian country, which operated a Navy of mostly WWII surface combatants up until the mid-2010s. Currently, Manila’s collection of Hamilton-class cutters, Indonesian amphibs and Korean frigates are already taking up most of the berthing at Subic. With the service expecting up to eight warships, two frigates and six corvettes, from Korea within the next four years, the leased space at Naval Operating Base Subic is unlikely to be sufficient for the fleet’s expansion.
The U.S. ramped up its infrastructure support since the two countries deepened their defense and security relationship last year, particularly around nine Philippine bases under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. Under the defense agreement, American troops and facilities could be rotationally deployed and constructed at mutually agreed sites.
While Subic Bay is not under this agreement, developments around the former U.S. Navy installation have also been eyed by Washington and its allies. Despite the departure in the 1990s, American forces have regularly used Subic’s now civilian facilities for refueling and repairs. The Pentagon examined the Philippines as a site for a military repair hub, according to news source Nikkei Asia. Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, the shipbuilder of the Philippine Navy’s newest warships, has also secured a lease from Cerberus for the construction of offshore wind platforms at the yard.
