At a recent stakeholders’ meeting for Project BUHAWI, Department of Science and Technology (DOST) secretary Renato U. Solidum Jr. assured the Department of National Defense (DND) of his agency’s full support for the latter’s initiative to establish a self-reliant defense posture.
Project BUHAWI – short for “Building a Universal Mount for Heavy-Barrel Automated Weapon Integration” – is an automated gun mount for heavy barrel Browning 0.50 caliber machine guns on small Navy patrol craft. It was developed in 2019 by the DOST’s Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC).
“The DND is responsible for addressing the national security threats while DOST is mandated to offer timely and appropriate solutions to the challenges of various sectors through S&T research and development efforts, ” Solidum said at the meeting.
Meanwhile, DND officer-in-charge and undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr. welcomed the development of Project BUHAWI, praising its potential benefit and savings to the Philippine Navy even as he welcomed further collaborations with the DOST.
“Make no mistake. This alone is not our end goal together with DOST. We called the domestic industry players to join us in this endeavor by producing more units of BUHAWI. Join us in reviving the SRDP by infusing capital and bringing more investment to spur the development of the domestic defense industry,” said Faustino.
Also unveiled at the meeting was Controller Operated Battle-Ready Armament (COBRA), the DOST-MIRDC’s collaboration with the Philippine Army. Project COBRA features a shielded gun mount with built-in control system as well as a weapon console and power system.
