VESSEL REVIEW | BRP Miguel Malvar – Guided-missile corvette expands Philippine Navy's air defence and surface warfare capabilities
The Philippine Navy recently took delivery of the lead ship of a new class of two guided-missile corvettes built by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) of South Korea.
The future BRP Miguel Malvar is the second Philippine Navy ship to be named after Miguel Carpio Malvar, a Filipino general who fought in the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War.
Malvar and sister ship BRP Diego Silang, which is nearing completion at HHI, were built in fulfilment of a contract awarded in late 2021 by the Philippine Department of National Defense.
The Malvar-class corvettes will be used for anti-surface warfare and anti-air warfare alongside the navy’s two Jose Rizal-class frigates, which were also built by HHI and delivered in 2020 and 2021.
The Malvar-class corvettes’ design is an upgrade of that used on the Rizal-class frigates. The corvettes were built with slightly larger dimensions and heavier displacements to permit the installation of additional subsystems in fulfilment of the navy's requirements.
Weapons fitout optimised for defence against surface and airborne threats
Miguel Malvar has a length of 118.4 metres (388.5 feet), a beam of 14.9 metres (48.9 feet), a displacement of 3,200 tonnes, and four MTU-STX diesel engines that deliver a top speed of 25 knots and a range of 4,500 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 15 knots.
Alternatively, the corvette can stay out at sea for a maximum of 20 days, allowing for extended duration patrols within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Aviation facilities include a flight deck and hangar for use by a 12-tonne helicopter. Space is also available for two rigid inflatable boats that the ship’s crew may use for at-sea interceptions and boardings.
The corvette’s armament consists of a Leonardo 76mm rapid-fire naval gun, an Aselsan Gokdeniz 35mm close-in weapon system, four 12.7mm machine guns, C-Star anti-ship cruise missiles housed in two quadruple launchers, MICA surface-to-air missiles housed in a 16-cell vertical launch system (VLS), and Blue Shark lightweight torpedoes.
The weapons fitouts make the Malvar-class corvettes the first Philippine Navy ships to be fitted with a VLS from the outset (the Rizal-class frigates are fitted for but not with VLS and currently do not yet feature such weapon systems) as well as the navy’s most heavily armed ships in terms of guided missiles.
Comprehensive target detection and tracking capabilities
The electronics suite includes a combat management system and a tactical datalink from Hanwha Systems, an IAI Elta EL/M-2258 3D AESA radar, Kelvin Hughes SharpEye I- and E/F-band radars, a Selex ES NA-25X fire control radar, and a Safran PASEO electro-optical target tracking sensor.
The corvette also boasts two Terma C-Guard launchers containing decoy countermeasures as added protection against hostile guided missiles.
Miguel Malvar arrived in the Philippines earlier this month and is scheduled to be commissioned into service in the coming weeks. Sister ship Diego Silang will be handed over later this year.
