The Marawi seiged was an opener to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Before we take pride that ours is an Armed Forces that is battle tested in jungle-guerilla warfare - decades of dealing with the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf group. Experience in the battle by the AFP are so precious that we train or share best practices with our long time treaty ally the United States of America in the annual Balikatan military exercises.
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| Maxdefense Philippines, the AFP should consider acquiring main battle tanks such as the Israeli made Magach 7 model, the Marawi siege exposed the soldiers to the danger of the Maute terrorists use of rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). Social media was replete with pictures of Armored vehicles with wooden planks covering them from the RPG's. (photo credit to the owner) |
The ISIS (Islamic State
in Iraq and Syria) inspired Maute group opened the eyes of the AFP top brass to
re-orient their tried and tested military doctrines. The urban warfare brought
about by the seige in Marawi has proved too much costly in terms of government
troops that was lost, as of press time 522 terrorist are killed along with 119
government troops killed and 45 civilian brutally executed.
The AFP Chief of Staff
has ordered all frontline military commanders in Marawi to document all their
observations and experiences during the battle against the Maute terrorist
which started last May 23, all of which will be collated and will be used in
the plan of updating the AFP’s urban warfare doctrine.
"These could serve
as the basis of creating or crafting a new doctrine pursuant to what we have
learn in these (urban warfare) operations in Marawi," AFP public affairs
office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said.
Urban warfare refers to
fighting inside heavily-populated areas, using buildings, houses and other
areas, as concealment points, for attack against conventional military units.
Terrorists like the ISIS
or Maute group have shown this kind of warfare due to their disregard for human
life, private and public property.
Snipers, used of
improvised explosive devices (IED’s) and booby traps are also a predominant
feature in this type of fighting.
Main Battle tanks for
the AFP?
In the first few days of
the Marawi seige, news and social media are replete of videos showing Maute
terrorists launching rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) against the Philippine Army
and Philippine National Police’s armored fighting vehicles.
Maxdefense Philippines,
believes that this is the right time for the AFP in tune with its updating of
military doctrines for urban warfare to acquire from friendly foreign
countries- main battle tanks.
“These tanks will be
useful for events similar to Marawi, while also useful to train the Philippine
Army in armor and combined arms operations while new tanks are being eyed for
Horizons 2 and 3 stages,” MaxDefense said.
Maxdefense elaborated
that “With the painful experience of the Philippine Army in Marawi City of not
having a vehicle with heavy armor and firepower to provide troops fighting in
urban warfare, they [should] consider [acquiring] a few main battle tanks, a
company of less than 20 units plus accompanying [support] vehicles would be
enough for now,”.
Israel is the country
suggested that can provide the AFP with these kind of tanks, 2 tanks are
recommended either the Merkava II or Magach 7 model.
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