Israel's Elbit System Likely To Modernize 40 Philippine Army's M113A2 Armored Carriers

The Philippine Army will likely award a contract to Israeli Elbit Systems to modernize 40 of its M113A2 armored personnel carriers (APC) through direct negotiation.

US-made 40 M113A2s will be modernized as part of 114 APCs donated by US through its Excess Defense Article (EDA) program. These APCs were delivered in 2015.

Elbit will be contracted to convert the 40 APCs into platforms armed with a 12.7mm machine guns in Remote Controlled Weapons Stations (RCWS) and Armored Mortar Carriers armed with a Soltam Cardom 120mm mortar, MaxDefense Philippines announced Monday.

According to MaxDefense, budget for the mentioned upgrades will be sourced from Revised Armed Force of the Philippines Modernization Program (RA 1034), First Horizon-second list.

First Horizon-second list was derived from the cancelled Shore Based Missile System (SBMS) program.

Elbit already delivered 28 refurbished and upgraded APCs to the Philippine Army with contract price of PHP882 million, signed in 2014. Upgrades included installation of 25 mm unmanned turrets, 12.7 mm remote controlled weapon stations (RCWS), fire control systems (FCS) for 90 mm turrets, and conversion to recovery units.