‘Pitch Black' 2026: Philippines considers options beyond multirole fighters

Philippine Air Force (PAF) Commanding General Lieutenant General Arthur M Cordura said on 31 July at RAAF Base Darwin that the service is transitioning to territorial defence from counter-insurgency operations. (Janes/Akhil Kadidal)

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is evaluating alternatives to support its future air-defence requirements as it transitions from counter-insurgency operations to territorial defence, the service's chief said.

Speaking during Exercise ‘Pitch Black' 2026 at Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base Darwin on 31 July, Lieutenant General Arthur Cordura, commanding general of the PAF, said the service aims to project air power over distances of more than 200 n miles across the Philippines' operational environment in support of the country's Comprehensive Archipelagic Defence Concept (CADC).

While the MRF programme remains a priority for the PAF, Lt Gen Cordura said the evolution of air power provides the Philippines with alternative ways to achieve its goal of establishing an integrated air defence system.

“An MRF is very expensive, but you have other options. You have ground-based air defence [platforms] and unmanned platforms,” he said, adding that these technologies had given the PAF a “good picture of how air power has changed throughout the years”.

A multirole platform acquisition must be considered within the context of the Philippines as a developing country and assessed against “how much capability we can actually absorb”, he said.

Nevertheless, Lt Gen Cordura said the MRF programme remains a critical acquisition to meet the country's defence requirements, along with “the peripherals that go with it”.

Benchmarking

Under the planned transformation, which the PAF calls Flight Plan 2040, the service seeks to procure 36 multirole fighters (MRFs) for air defence and interdiction roles.