BRP ''Andrés Bonifacio'' (PS-17) is the third ship of the ''Gregorio del Pilar''-class

offshore patrol vessel A patrol boat (also referred to as a patrol craft, patrol ship, or patrol vessel) is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defence, border security, or law enforcement. There are many designs for patrol boats, and th ...

s of the

Philippine Navy The Philippine Navy (PN) () is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 10,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 91 combat ...

. She is the second ship of the Philippine Navy to be named after

Andrés Bonifacio Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro (, ; November 30, 1863May 10, 1897) was a Filipino people, Filipino revolutionary leader. He is often called "The Father of the Philippines, Philippine Philippine Revolution, Revolution", and considered a nationa ...

, a Filipino revolutionary leader, regarded as the "Father of the

Philippine Revolution The Philippine Revolution ( or ; or ) was a war of independence waged by the revolutionary organization Katipunan against the Spanish Empire from 1896 to 1898. It was the culmination of the 333-year History of the Philippines (1565–1898), ...

" and one of the most influential national heroes of the Philippines. She was originally designated upon commissioning as "''FF-17''". In February 2019, the Navy downgraded the status of the entire class from

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

to patrol ship and redesignated her to "''PS-17''".

Design

The ship was designed with a high level of habitability and provides fairly comfortable accommodations, including air conditioning.

Propulsion

The ''Andres Bonifacio'' employs the shipboard application of aircraft gas turbine jet engines with the use of controllable pitch propellers. She is equipped with two

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

s and can propel the ship at speeds up to . ''Ramon Alcaraz'' also has two

Fairbanks-Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Founded in 1823 as a manufacturer of weighing scale, weighing scales, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinder ...

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, capable of driving the ship economically at for up to without refueling. A retractable/rotatable bow propulsion unit provides manoeuvrability in tight situations.

Armament

Prior to turn-over to the Philippine Navy, the ship was armed with a Mk.75 Oto Melara 76mm/62cal Compact main gun, two Mk.38 25 mm Bushmaster chain guns at midships, and a

Phalanx CIWS The Phalanx CIWS () is an automated gun-based close-in weapon system to defend military watercraft automatically against incoming threats such as aircraft, missiles, and small boats. It was designed and manufactured by the General Dynamics Co ...

system aft. The CIWS and chain guns were removed prior to its turn-over, with the Mk.75 gun remaining.

Flight support

''Andres Bonifacio'' has a flight deck and hangar capable of handling helicopters. The Philippine Navy uses the AgustaWestland AW109E Power naval helicopter as its standard helicopter for the entire class.

Modernization

The Philippine Navy plans to modernize the entire ship of the class, with an initial program to upgrade the ship's sensors, and another program to improve its weapon systems. Several systems were acquired through US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and Foreign Military Financing (FMF), which includes the BAE Systems Mk. 38 Mod. 2 machine gun system, the SAAB AN/SPS-77 Sea Giraffe AMB 3D air/surface search radar, and the

FLIR Systems Teledyne FLIR LLC, formerly FLIR Systems Inc, (an acronym for " forward-looking infrared"), a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies since January 2021, specializes in the design and production of thermal imaging cameras and sensors. Its main custo ...

SeaFLIR 230 Electro-Optical/Infra-Red Camera. Meanwhile, the Philippine Navy will launch a program to acquire, install and integrate several other sensors into the ship, as part of the Horizon 2 phase of the Revised AFP Modernization Program. Among those to be acquired are new Combat Management System (CMS), Hull Mounted Sonar (HMS), and a Radar Electronic Support Measures (R-ESM). Future upgrades are planned to install defensive and offensive missile systems, as well as torpedo weapon system, although funding is still being secured and might only be included in the next phase of the Navy's modernization program. In 2020 October 14, Navy chief Giovanni Carlo Bacordo revealed the completion of the ''3D modeling program'' for the entire ship class' cabling systems to be used for their electronic upgrades (CMS + 4 sensors), indicating the project is at least running despite the covid-19 pandemic. On 6 May 2024 it was announced that BRP Andres Bonifacio resumed naval operations after the completion of extensive upgrades, including the upgrade of its combat management system and installation of air and surface search radar.

History

From 1967 to 2016, the ship was a

high endurance cutter The designation of high endurance cutter (WHEC) was created in 1965 when the United States Coast Guard adopted its own designation system. High endurance cutters encompass the largest cutters previously designated by the United States Navy as g ...

of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

that was named . The U.S. decommissioned the cutter in early 2016 and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

acquired it under the ''Excess Defense Articles'' and the

Foreign Assistance Act The Foreign Assistance Act (, et seq.) is a United States law governing foreign aid policy. It outlined the political and ideological principles of U.S. foreign aid, significantly overhauled and reorganized the structure of U.S. foreign assista ...

. The frigate was formally received by the Philippine Navy on July 21, 2016, and commissioned to service on the same day at the USCG base at

Alameda An alameda is a street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada * Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan ** Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile * Alameda (Santi ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. She arrived in Manila on December 9, 2016 after port visit in Guam on December 5, 2016.

Notable operational deployments

In April 2019, the BRP ''Andres Bonifacio'' had an unplanned encounter at sea with the frigate Wu Chang (FFG-1205) of the Taiwanese Navy near the

Mavulis Island Mavulis Island is the northernmost of the Batanes Islands and the Extreme points of the Philippines, northernmost island in the Philippines. It is part of the archipelagic Philippine province, province of Batanes Province, Batanes. The island is ...

Batanes Batanes, officially the Province of Batanes (; Ilocano: ''Probinsia ti Batanes''; , ), is an archipelagic province in the Philippines, administratively part of the Cagayan Valley region. It is the northernmost province in the Philippines, an ...

. The two ships implemented the Naval Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) during the encounter. The Wu Chang was monitoring the activity at Mavulis while the BRP Bonifacio was on its way to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Exercises

* Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) 2017: The BRP ''Andres Bonifacio'' was sent to Malaysia for its first international deployment as a Philippine Navy ship, to be the Philippines' representative in the LIMA 2017 from March 21 to 26, 2017. The ship also had a port call at the Lumut Naval Base in Perak, Malaysia and conducted joint exercises with the

Royal Malaysian Navy The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN, ; Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ) is the naval arm of the Malaysian Armed Forces. RMN is the main agency responsible for the country's maritime surveillance and defence operations. RMN's area of operation consists of 603,2 ...

, before docking at Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia for a goodwill visit from March 30 to April 3, 2017. * Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2018: From June to early August 2018, the ship participated in the RIMPAC 2018 together with the

Landing Platform Dock An amphibious transport dock, also called a landing platform dock (LPD), is an amphibious warfare ship, a warship that embarks, transports, and lands elements of a landing force for expeditionary warfare missions. Several navies currently operat ...

. This is the first time that the

sent ships to the world's largest International Maritime Exercise which is held biennially in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. Among the events the ship participated at RIMPAC were a one-day "Open Ship" Guided Ship Tour for the public where the

Seabee United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Dependi ...

Band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

had a Live-Band performance for the ship's visitors. * Balikatan 2019: The ship participated on a

Visit, board, search, and seizure Visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) is the term used by United States military and law enforcement agencies for Naval boarding, maritime boarding actions and tactics. VBSS teams are designed to capture enemy vessels, combat Counter-terrorism ...

operation during Balikatan 2019.

Gallery

File:BRP Andres Bonifacio Arrives in Hawaii for RIMPAC 2018 001.jpg, BRP ''Andrés Bonifacio'' (PS-17) arrives in

for

RIMPAC The Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) is the world's largest international maritime warfare exercise. RIMPAC is held biennially during June and July of even-numbered years from Honolulu, Hawaii, with the exception of 2020 where it was held ...

2018. File:TDT Operation on BRP Andres Bonifacio at RIMPAC 2018 002.jpg, Stern view of BRP ''Andrés Bonifacio'' during TDT Operation in the

2018.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andres Bonifacio (PS-17) Hamilton-class cutters of the Philippine Navy Ships of the Philippine Navy Ships built in Bridge City, Louisiana 1967 ships