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Philippine Army Accepts Delivery Of 40K Remington R4 Rifles

OptimusPrime

The Philippine Army can now finally go into battle with a much more current assault rifle as it finally accepted delivery of around 44,816 Remington R4 Rifles from Remington Defense. The R4 is the version of the M4 assault rifle by Remington Defense which won the bidding for the next assault rifle for the Philippine Army in November 2013.

Initially ,the US$47 million contract was for over 40,000 rifles and accessories but in the second half of 2014, increased the order to 63,000 units.

The Philippine Army and other regular infantry units in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have long been using the Vietnam-era M16A1 Rifle which was produced locally under licence by Elisco Tool and Manufacturing. Special Operations units of the AFP are already equipped with M4 variants and other newer assault rifles. The feared Philippine Army Scout Rangers use the Steyr Aug .

However, tests of the initial deliveries of the Remington R4 compelled the AFP to return around 22,000 rifles to the supplier as they were defective. This was the batch of 27,000 rifles and the 5,000 which passed the tests were issued to the Philippine Marines. A batch of 24,300 rifles were also accepted and to be distributed to the Philippine Army troopers with the remaining 19,886 rifles still to be tested before they authorise distribution of these to more units.

The AFP is embarking on a modernisation program to bring its defence capabilities to the 21st Century. The Philippines after World War II had one of the strongest militaries in Asia but deteriorated over the years duty to government neglect and corruption. It's Air Force is almost non-existent though it has already ordered T-50 Trainer/Fighters from South Korea. The Philippine Navy, which needs to really beef up given the tensions in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea is very much antiquated with its latest ships being the Hamilton-Class Cutters of the U.S. Coast Guard that were commissioned in 1965.

While the AFP will be having the Remington R4 as the main assault rifle, the older M16s will be refurbished by the Government Arsenal (GA) and will remain ready for use when needed.

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