ORD PABAC2-005-24 Carbine, 5.56mm Assault Rifle 15 Platform Acquisition Project of the Philippine Army
A requirement for new 5.56mm assault rifles was raised by the Philippine Army to meet its current, and potentially near-future requirements to equip recently recruited and future military personnel.
This resource page discusses the Carbine, 5.56mm (Assault Rifle 15 Platform) Acquisition Project of the Philippine Army, specifically the project raised in 2023 but funded by allocations for 2024.
 |
| Soldiers firing with AR-15 rifles. Photo credits to Wikipedia. |
Project Summary:
ORD PABAC2-005-24 Carbine, 5.56mm (Assault Rifle 15 Platform) Acquisition Project (2023) of the Philippine Army:
Note: Edited as of 16 December 2023.
* End User: Philippine Army (multiple units)
* Quantity: 5,100 units
* Modernization Phase: GAA 2024 Funding for the Philippine Army
* Project ABC: Php249,900.000.00
* Acquisition Mode: Public Bidding
* Source of Funding: GAA 2024 Funds for the Philippine Army
* SARO Release: TBC
* Winning Proponent: TBA
* Product for Delivery: TBC
* Contract Price: TBC
* Residual Difference (Savings): TBC
* First post by MaxDefense: 15 October 2023 (this post)
* MaxDefense Searching Hashtag: #PACarbine556mm2023Acquisition
* Status: Requirement for 5,100 new 5.56mm AR-15-type assault rifles, to be delivered in 1 batch within 210 days from release of Notice to Proceed. Bidding was raised on 10 October 2023 with SOBE tentatively scheduled on 24 October 2023, which pushed through.
 |
| The SIG Sauer SIGM400 Pro in 14.5" barrel without suppressor. Photo credits to SIG Sauer USA's website. |
The Philippine Army has raised a requirement for 5,100 new 5.56mm AR-15 type assault rifles to be distributed to officers and men. We believe that either they are to be allocated to a new unit, possibly a new Brigade Combat Team based on the number of firearms, or to fill up new battalions.
According to the tender documents, the delivery will be done in a single batch within 210 days from release of Notice to Proceed (NTP). If the first bidding attempt succeeds, we estimate that the rifles will all be delivered by 3rd quarter of 2024.
The technical requirements have been released with the following details:
 |
| Screengrabbed from Bid Documents of the project. |
In comparison, the Philippine Army's Remington R4A3 rifles are using Gas Piston Driven systems.
This is not the first time the Philippine Army specified for a DGIS operating system for AR-15 type rifles.
Recent procurements of AR-15 type rifles were with DGIS systems, of which SIG Sauer's SIG M400 Pro and Taurus Armas' T4 rifles have been delivered to the Philippine Army to replace the M16A1 rifle.
 |
| The SIG M400 SBR, although the Philippine Army ordered the one with longer 14.5" barrel. Photo credits to Ricardo Torres @ Pinterest. |
 |
| The Taurus T4 5.56x45mm rifle, which is based on the AR-15 design. Photo taken from Pinterest. |
In previous tenders, SIG Sauer (represented by Intrade Asia Pacific), Brazil's Taurus Armas (represented by Trust Trade), Israel's Emtan (represented by Armscor Global Defense), South Korea's Dasan (represented by United Defense Manufacturing Corp.), and Daniel Defense (represented by Nashe Enterprises) have participated and submitted in other similar tenders for the Philippine Army and Philippine Marine Corps, and they are expected to participate again in this tender.
 |
| The Emtan MZ-4 5.56x45mm assault rifle, which is their version of the AR-15. The Philippine Army is interested in the 14.5" barrel option. Photo taken from Emtan Karmiel's website. |
 |
| The Dasan DSAR15 rifle was previously submitted in a similar tender for the Philippine Marine Corps by South Korea's Dasan Machineries' local representative UDMC. Photo credits to Dasan. |
But we expect issues on Emtan Karmiel, as previously it was disqualified for failing to meet Net Financing Contracting Capacity (NFCC) requirements in a previous tender. But its biggest obstacle at the moment is the war between Israel and Hamas as Israeli arms manufacturers might be pushed to divert its productions for requirements of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), resulting in inability to deliver the rifles within the specified timeframe.
Since the Philippine Army is already using the SIG Sauer M400 Pro and Taurus T4 rifles, there is a bigger chance that the Philippine Army may lean more to these 2 rifles to minimize the introduction of too many rifles models in its arsenal.
U P D A T E S:
============
16 December 2023:
The PhilGEPS procurement website has posted that the tender has been closed and post-submission process is ongoing.
This is good news considering the other project to procure an almost the same amount of 9mm Pistols that was tendered at the same time as this project was cancelled.
We'll see in a few months if this project will proceed to awarding or failure.
===============
===============
First edit and release: 15 October 2023
Copyright MaxDefense Philippines / Philippine Defense Resource.
No comments