The rhk111 Military and Arms Page: Ten Project BUHAWI Units are ongoing Procurement for the Philippine Navy

Near the end of the Term of former President Rodrigo Duterte in May of the Year 2022, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) officially turned over to the Philippine Navy (PN) the Project Building a Universal Mount for Heavy-Barrel Automated Weapon Integration or BUHAWI for short and declared it ready for Mass Production.

Project BUHAWI is a Philippine developed and made Remote Weapons Station (RWS) equipped with a Day and Night Optical System and armed with a .50 caliber Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) that is meant to be installed on Sea Vessels.

But not a lot has been written about the Project since that time, so I was wondering what had happened to it, especially since it was supposed to go into Mass Production already.

Then during the recent Asian Defense and Security (ADAS) Event in Pasay, I saw that the Naval Research and Technology Development Center (NRTDC) Group of the PN featured a Scale Model of it on their Booth, so I asked them about it.

It turns out that ten Units of Project BUHAWI are now ongoing the Procurement Process, and once completed, these will be installed on PN Vessels. No mention was made on which Vessels it will be installed on, but the NRTDC People were hoping that it will be installed not just on the PN’s smaller Crafts, but on bigger Ships as well.

I told them I agree, that the Tarlac-class Landing Docks (LD) lack any automated Weapons as of now, and at least two of them would be a good addition there per Vessel. The Units reportedly costs around Php 14 to 16 million each.

No other Details were revealed other than these, personally I think it will take another two Years for the Procurement Process to be completed and the first unit installed on a Vessel, but I hope it would be faster.

As of now the Project BUHAWI has been installed on one PN Vessel only, the BRP Heracleo Alano (PC-376) which is a Jose Andrada-class Patrol Craft and who recently showed Pictures and Videos of them Training with it.

My own Personal hope and wish for this Philippine developed and made Project is for all of the PN Vessels with no automated Weapons be installed with it eventually, and it will also be used on our Capital Vessels as well.

SOURCES:

* DOST developed BUHAWI turned over to the DND to boost Modernization of local Defense Assets {Archived Link}

* Brp Heracleo Alano Facebook Page Post, 08/25/24 – 1021H {Archived Link}

* Naval Research and Technology Development Center Facebook Page Post, 09/25/24 – 2147H {Archived Link}

Check out the Links to my other Social Media Accounts at https://linktr.ee/rhk111

Don’t forget to click on the Ads or to donate to help support this Website.