The United States will transfer three King Air turboprop aircraft configured for maritime domain awareness to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Pentagon announced on September 28, 2026.
According to USNI News, Virginia-based Technology Service Corp. received a $39 million contract to procure and integrate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) kits on King Air 350 Extended Range aircraft.
Two of the three aircraft will be fitted with the ISR hardware and software. The contract also covers training on the surveillance systems and on operating the aircraft.
The transfer was first agreed in February 2026, following a meeting between US Defense Department Undersecretary John Noh and PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gavan.
Building surveillance capability amid regional tensions
The King Air transfer is the latest US effort to strengthen the Philippines’ intelligence-gathering capabilities amid rising tensions with China over disputed features in the South China Sea.
The US has previously supplied unmanned surface vessels and patrol boats that Philippine forces have used to track Chinese activity.
The Pentagon has also handed over several Cessna aircraft fitted with ISR kits to the Philippine Air Force. First transferred in the 2010s for counterinsurgency operations, the turboprops have since been reassigned to maritime patrol over the South China Sea.
Until recently, the Philippine military focused largely on internal security.
According to USNI News, the South China Sea dispute and concerns that a potential Taiwan contingency could spill over into the Luzon Strait are now driving Manila’s push for modern defense capabilities.
The US-supplied turboprops have also drawn frequent responses from the Chinese military over Scarborough Shoal. Reports say that Chinese J-16 and JL-10 fighters, supported by a KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft, recently tracked a Philippine turboprop over the shoal.
PCG challenges Chinese survey ship off Batanes
The announcement was followed only a few days later by a PCG operation against a Chinese research vessel off the northern province of Batanes, near Taiwan.
On October 1, 2026, the coast guard said it had deployed its largest vessel and an aircraft to challenge the ship, Reuters reported.
According to the PCG, the Chinese-flagged survey vessel JIA HAI KE 7 had stayed in position about 37 nautical miles northwest of Itbayat Island since September 28. The coast guard had earlier accused the same ship of spoofing its location while loitering in the area.
The PCG said the 97-meter BRP Teresa Magbanua came within 100 yards of the survey ship and launched a rigid-hull inflatable boat. Personnel on the boat circled the vessel several times while issuing radio challenges. The coast guard said the research ship repeatedly maneuvered to avoid the Philippine boats.
A China Coast Guard vessel then arrived and positioned itself to shield the survey ship, issuing radio challenges of its own to the Teresa Magbanua.
The PCG described the China Coast Guard’s involvement as significant because JIA HAI KE 7 is privately owned. It said this raised questions about the vessel’s ties to the Chinese government and about the purpose of any data it may have gathered near undersea cable corridors off Batanes and in the Luzon Strait.