Philippine Defense OSINT

There's also an RSV OPV on the other side of the facility undergoing some post-dry dock works

Cope harder 🤪

nah, this is better🙂

As far as I know, yes. HHI also showed models of the HDF-3500 with a slightly expanded VLS space behind the 76mm, although Flight II is believed to be closer to 3,400 tons.

The succeeding Flights from the first are able to accommodate more and bigger K-VLS by being longer and heavier. There are also reportedly additional upgrades on the third flight that we will cover on the next update. 📸 HHI and Naval News fin/x

From RUMINT; MMCF Flight I will have 8x K-VLS 'Compact' installed in the coming years MMCF Flight II will have 8x K-VLS 'Standard' (ideally) upon delivery, with room for 8 more MMCF Flight III will have 16x K-VLS 'Standard' (ideally) upon delivery All will have 16 VL MICA 1/x

The reason why we're covering this will become clearer very soon, as there's a high chance that the Philippine Navy ships will be utilizing a mix of both the Compact and Standard K-VLS, depending on the limits and needs for each ship class. fin/x

Meanwhile, the Standard K-VLS will be longer, and will have more missiles compatible with it - including the longer ranged KM-SAM, K-ASROC, and a quad-packed K-SAAM. Min. Config are also set to 1x4 for the Compact and 2x4 for the Standard. 3/x

K-VLS Compact requires a shorter length in the hull, and will have lesser compatibility issues considering its overall size. The limitation here is that it is only able to use the K-SAAM, which is a short range AD at ~20km, but will be quad packed even in the Compact K-VLS. 2/x

As we soon discuss what and how many VLS cells will be installed in the MMCF ships, it would be important to at least cover for now the difference between the Compact K-VLS and the "Standard" K-VLS. For ease of discussion, we'll just say Compact vs Standard here 1/x