US to build Philippine boat repair facilities near contested South China Sea

MANILA – The US Navy plans to build two repair facilities for smaller vessels operating in the western Philippines, with one about 240km east of a fiercely contested reef in the South China Sea.

Located in the Spratly archipelago, Second Thomas Shoal hosts a small detachment of Philippine forces aboard a grounded navy vessel and has been the site of

clashes with Chinese ships

.

Beijing claims almost the entirety of the crucial waterway despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.

The US government’s contracting website, Sam.gov, locates one of the proposed repair facilities in Palawan province’s Quezon municipality.

The facilities “will provide repair and maintenance capabilities for a variety of (Philippine) vessels, including 7.32m watercraft, as well as other smaller conventional watercraft”, the bid notice for the Quezon project reads.

The Philippines owns several vessels that size, including rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) that have been involved in clashes with larger Chinese ships.

While there are not believed to be existing permanent military facilities in Quezon, the area has hosted parts of

joint US-Philippine military exercises

for the past two years.

The US Embassy in Manila confirmed the tender on July 16 for both the Quezon project and a similar one to be constructed at the Philippines’ existing Oyster Bay naval facility about 130km to the north.

Officials from the US Defence Department did not immediately provide comment.

Admiral Rommel Jude Ong (Ret) from the Philippines, now a military analyst with the Ateneo de Manila University, said such facilities could be used “for RHIBs, but more likely for smaller rubber boats used in the resupply of occupied features”.

The Philippines and the United States have deepened their defence cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims. AFP