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| The new frigate, soon to be BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-06) ar Naval Operating Base Subic. Photo c/o Philippine Navy. |
The Philippine Navy conducted the formal arrival ceremonies for its first of two Miguel Malvar-class frigate, the future BRP Miguel Malvar (FFG-06) during ceremonies held in its Naval Operating Base Subic in Zambales province, north of Manila on 08 April 2025.
The ship arrived earlier from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ naval shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea after departing on 31 March 2025.
Prior to commissioning under a Initial Operational Capacity, the frigate will undergo a series of further inspections and tests, as well as training of crew. The Philippine Navy has not yet indicated the commissioning date.
The Miguel Malvar-class was originally acquired as a corvette under the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program Horizon 2 phase, which covers 2018 to 2022.
It uses HD HHI’s HDF-3200 design, which was derived on improvements from its HDF-2600 / Jose Rizal-class light frigate design built for the Philippine Navy a few years earlier, with inputs from advancements in the development of the FFX-II / Daegu-class frigates built for the Republic of Korea Navy.
The new frigate is 118.4 meters long, 14.9 meters wide and has a displacement of 3,200 tons. It is powered by 4 MTU-STX marine diesel engines that allows the frigate to have a maximum range of 4,500 nautical miles at 15 knots, and a maximum speed of more than 25 knots.
It is equipped with the Hanwha Systems Naval Shield Tactical Combat Management System, linking the ship’s sensors and weapons which includes the IAI Elta EL/M-2258 ALPHA 3D AESA air/surface search radar, a Selex NA-25X fire control radar, Safran PASEO XLR EOTS, ELAC Sonar Hunter 2.0 active/passive hull-mounted sonar, the Elbit Elisra Aquamarine electronic support measures suite, and Hanwha Systems Link-P tactical data link.
It is armed with an Oto Melara 76mm Super Rapid naval gun, an Aselsan Gokdeniz twin 35mm close-in weapon system (CIWS), a 16-cell vertical launch system for MBDA VL-MICA short range air defense missiles, two SEA triple launchers for the LIG Nex1 Blue Shark lightweight anti-submarine torpedoes, and two quadruple launchers for the LIG Nex1 SSM-700K C-Star anti-ship cruise missiles.
It also has a helipad for a standard 10-ton naval helicopter.
Further upgrades are expected as the frigates will be equipped with a towed-array sonar system which is yet to be determined, as well as having the US Data Link 16 and Link 22 tactical data links.
[1] Naval News
[2] Philippine Defense Resource
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