Philippines starts development of indigenous RCWS

The Project BUHAWI RCWS working prototype during demonstrations. Photo c/o DOST.

The Philippine Navy (PN), in collaboration with the Philippines' Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Mechatronics and Robotics Society of the Philippines, has started development of an indigenous remote controlled weapon station (RCWS).

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana led the soft launching of Project BUHAWI on 7 January 2020 at Marine Base Gregorio Lim in Cavite province.

Under Project BUHAWI, or "Building a Universal Mount for Heavy-Barrel Automated Weapon Integration", aims to produce a RCWS allowing a .50-caliber heavy machine gun, while also becoming the basis for RCWS for larger gun calibers.

Initially the development would allow the PN to manufacture a local RCWS that it could mount on existing and future naval assets, as the PN is in the process of upgrading several of its patrol assets in the coming years.

A working prototype was displayed during the soft launch of the project, although it appears that more work needs to be done to further fine tune the system.


[1] Philippines Department of National Defense
[2] Navy Recognition
[3] MaxDefense Philippines