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Here is the first image of a former USCG Marine Protector-class patrol boat that is now painted into the Philippine Coast Guard stripes, reflecting its upcoming transfer to the maritime law enforcement agency.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #MarineProtectorClass #PhilippineCoastGuard
Former USCG Marine Protector-class patrol boat being transferred to the Philippine Coast Guard running drills in Curtis Bay, Maryland - June 25, 2026 SRC: FB- Baltimore & Chesapeake Bay Ship Watchers / Bradley Bockelmann 📸
This shows that China expands far beyond its nine-dash line claim, disregarding the agreements that both Philippines and Japan have in delienating its maritime domains.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
🚨THE BASHI BREAKOUT: 🇨🇳#China has, for the first time, pushed a paramilitary sovereignty assertion past its own "10-dash line" & beyond the First Island Chain to challenge a maritime negotiation it isn't party to.
On May 28, 🇯🇵#Japan & the 🇵🇭#Philippines announced they would delimit their overlapping exclusive economic zones as prescribed by #UNCLOS. Beijing's answer was to send a flotilla through the Bashi Channel & into the open Pacific east of 🇹🇼#Taiwan, into waters that even its own most expansive maps don't (yet) claim.
The key is in which ships Beijing sent: China uses its navy to assert capability--what it can do by force. It uses its coast guard & other government ships as a paramilitary force to assert sovereignty--what it claims.
Not one ship in this flotilla was a warship, because this was a sovereignty claim.
That's what's really new here. For over a decade China used these same gray-zone tactics to assert sovereignty inside its South China Sea "nine-dash line". This week's action pushed somewhere new--going past even the 10th "dash" Beijing added to its 2023 map.
Beyond the First Island Chain.
This assertion was aimed not at Taiwan alone, but at two 🇺🇸US treaty allies. @China_MFA branded the Japan-Philippine talks "completely illegal and void", while a June 1 @globaltimesnews editorial called the idea "an extraordinary and almost unprecedented absurdity… akin to two neighbors sitting in your living room and discussing how to divide your backyard."
Note how China's "backyard" continues to expand. So, in fact, does its "living room".
What SeaLight's tracking shows:
🔹 From 1-5 June, CCG cutters Daishan (2502) & Baita (2304) ran the first clockwise patrol over 200nm east of Taiwan's easternmost island--well past the 10th "dash" on Beijing's 2023 map.
🔹 Late on June 7th, a second wave of 3 provincial Maritime Safety Administration cutters & a rescue tug pushed into the Bashi Channel. The formation entered Taiwan's restricted waters ~30nm off the southern tip, drew a 7-ship Taiwan Coast Guard standoff, then also pushed east.
Beijing's state media left no doubt about what it all meant, first with an official @XHNews/@globaltimesnews announcement, then a June 7 Global Times viewpoint column naming the operation "a sovereignty declaration with both legal significance and political signaling."
Taiwan's NSC chief @josephwutw named it "expansionism in disguise," Defense Minister Koo said it was "cognitive warfare." Both are quite correct.
But the deeper target is Tokyo, Manila & Washington DC, since if Beijing can run a paramilitary sovereignty assertion directly against two US allies' lawful EEZ talks in waters far beyond even its own claim lines, the real message is that China's maritime claims are not just expansive and ambiguous, they are unbounded.
📊 Tracking by @StarboardIntel
Actions made by China relative to this recent developments in Bajo de Masinloc is still, in itself, a cause for concern that needs constant monitoring.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
🚨SCARBOROUGH SHOAL UPDATE
🛰️A 2nd commercial satellite image further corroborates the previously reported object near Scarborough Shoal's entrance, and also shows a linear feature across the entrance consistent with a floating barrier.
In our 1 June post below, SeaLight was first to release satellite imagery of the small object at the mouth of Scarborough Shoal referenced by Philippine Defense Secretary Teodoro. At the time, we noted that we had reviewed an earlier commercial image but were unable to share it due to licensing restrictions.
Those restrictions have been resolved, enabling us to release this image captured by @vantortech (via @SkyfiApp) on 27 May 2026 (corrected from 26 May in our original post).
What this image adds:
1) Corroboration across date and provider: a small, bright object visible at the same location. Together with the 28 May @Satellogic image we previously released, this confirms the object was present across at least 27–28 May 2026. (We do NOT yet know from available imagery whether the object remains in place today.)
2) Floating barrier at the lagoon entrance:
the 27 May image shows a curved linear feature spanning the lagoon entrance consistent with a floating barrier, similar to access-control measures previously documented at the shoal.
Since our first post, @TeamAFP's Chief of Staff Gen. Brawner told @navalnewscom's @Frances_Mng that his analysts estimate the object at 6x6 meters, and are still determining whether it is floating or fixed.
Likewise, SeaLight still cannot confirm whether the object is fixed or floating, determine its function or conclusively attribute it to any actor. However, as China has exercised effective control over the shoal since 2012 and has increasingly restricted access to the lagoon entrance since 2024, attribution to any other actor is very unlikely.
SeaLight Director Ray Powell: “The 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea was meant to stop parties from increasing tensions by changing the status quo on contested, uninhabited features. Yet instead of addressing this object directly, China's SCS "think tank" @SCS_PI has dismissed Philippine concerns as ‘imagination and speculation’ and ‘random nonsense.’ But if China truly believes its signed agreements still matter, this is exactly the kind of development it should be willing to clarify openly: who placed this object at Scarborough’s entrance; when was it placed; what is its purpose; and when can we expect its removal?”
For the first time: United States Coast Guard now joins the Philippine Coast Guard in patrolling and challenging the claims imposed by China in the Panatag Shoal. This showcases the growing and strengthening ties among the alliance.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #USCGCMidgett #PanatagShoal #WestPhilippineSea #FreeAndOpenIndoPacific
🚨 HAPPENING NOW — 1st-ever US Coast Guard-Philippine Coast Guard joint patrol challenging PRC's exclusion zone at Scarborough Shoal
🇺🇸🇵🇭 For what appears to be the 1st time, a @USCG cutter is operating directly alongside the @coastguardph in a joint presence operation challenging Beijing's exclusion zone around #ScarboroughShoal (Bajo de Masinloc).
🛰️ Automatic Identification System tracking data from @StarboardIntel shows the USCG cutter Midgett sortieing from Manila Bay on 28 May alongside PCG cutter BRP Melchora Aquino & taking station on the western approaches to the shoal starting yesterday, 29 May and holding roughly 35-40 nm out.
🇵🇭 Also visible in the operation are PCG patrol vessel BRP Cabra & Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources BRP Datu Pagbuaya (now returning to Manila Bay, followed closely by CCG 21563). History suggests others may also be involved but operating "AIS-dark".
🇨🇳 Arrayed against them is a layered Chinese paramilitary cordon: at least 9 CCG cutters are visible on AIS forming an outer picket line 20-40nm from the shoal, while at least 7 large militia vessels are visible forming an inner cordon 5-17nm out.
🇨🇳 Past experience strongly suggests PLA Navy vessels (not visible on AIS) are also in the area, but will likely keep their distance to ensure no repeats of the disastrous 11 August 2025 "friendly fire" collision near Scarborough.
🤝 This direct involvement by the USCG in a Philippine challenge to China's maritime aggression inside the West Philippine Sea is a significant step forward for the alliance.
🎩 Hat-tip: thanks to friend-of-SeaLight @supbrow for tipping this to @GordianKnotRay!
Images: Miguel Malvar-class guided missile frigate BRP Diego Silang (FFG7) on the right part of the image joined other ships from other countries in Jarvis Bay for the fleet review phase of the maritime exercise KAKADU 2026 in Australia.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #BRPDiegoSilang #PhilippineNavy #MiguelMalvarClassFrigate #KAKADU2026
Image (c) @WarshipCam
To our community member, supporters, and readers who support our website and here in social media, we greet each and everyone of you a happy new year 2026.
We may wish you a healthy and happy 2026, and your home filled with good fortune.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
From us here in Pitz Defense Analysis, we would like to greet our readers that define this community a 'Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays'.
May you all stay safe, spending meaningful time with family members and close loved ones.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
Image: AI-Generated Christmas postcard of the BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16).
Breaking: Philippine Navy's second Miguel Malvar-class frigate, the future BRP Diego Silang (FFG07), has just arrived in Naval Operating Base Subic.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #BRPDiegoSilang
Update: At the time this screensot was provided from the MarineTraffic app, the future BRP Diego Silang (FFG07) is now within Philippine waters.
It will arrive in Naval Operating Base Subic some time later today or by tomorrow morning.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #PhilippineNavy #MiguelMalvarClassFrigate #BRPDiegoSilang
While the country's Christian majority still getting reflections during the holy holidays, let us post this image of the #BRPMiguelMalvar in a sunrise, together with its 76mm main gun and Vertical Launch System seen from the ship's bridge.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
3/3 The Sabrah ASCOD II Light Tanks of the Philippine Army were made by Israel's Elbit Advanced Systems Ltd., for its Light Tank Acquisition Project Requirements.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #PhilippineArmy #SabrahLightTank #ElbitAdvancedSystemsLtd
(C) Ezra Acayan, Getty Images
Here's a follow-up report: The crashed FA50 has found near Kalatungan Mountains in Bukidnon. Unfortunately, none of the pilots of the aircraft, bearing the tail number PH002, have survived.
Taps to the fallen.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
Reports are now circulating that the one of the #FA50PH lead-in fighter trainers of the #PhilippineAirForce went missing. More reports might come later on.
#ICYMI: People from @SITREPph made an interview with the founder and current owner of #PitzDefAnalysis, Pitz Orpiano on the 2025 #PhilippineDefenseBudget.
More details are in the podcast below. Again, pardon for any stuttering throughout the clip.
Corroborating the information received here in #PitzDefAnalysis and on previous discussions made, there is a likelihood of a defense package provided for the #ArmedForcesOfThePhilippines to consider, one of which is the F-16 #MRF under #ExcessDefenseArticles or #EDA.
4/7
Coming right up: A new article has posted on the #PitzDefAnalysis main website regarding strategic deployment of #TyphonMRC platform by the #USArmy. Link will be provided on July 22 at0800H GMT 8+ or Manila time.
It is also already accessible via https://t.co/FG5zrPfiTt.
From all of us here in
@DefensePitz, let us celebrate the day of Independence, and show before the world that Filipinos, amidst the challenges, do not yield.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
New on @DefensePitz:
The #PhilippineArmy has expressed their interest in adding more towed howitzers to their inventory, whereby they are specifically eyeing the Indian #ATAGS 155mm/52 caliber or #AdvancedTowedArtilleryGunSystem.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
https://t.co/5yeyuyQ0XN
Many Multirole Fighter aircraft-related projects are pointing to this particular type of aircraft. And, yes. That even includes the MRF project itself.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
Video: Another community member has shared to us the delivery of the Sabrah Tanks to the Philippine Army from Elbit Systems Ltd of Israel. This comes with 18 units MMBT, 1 command unit, and 1 recovery unit.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis #PhilippineArmy #SabrahTank #ElbitSystemsLtd
On this day, let us share this diagram of the HDV-3100 Corvette for the #PhilippineNavy, shared from DeviantArt by drethegrater.
#PDA #PitzDefAnalysis
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