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Fincantieri keen to boost PH underwater defense, security - exec

Philippine News Agency

By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora
November 12, 2025, 5:49 pm

MANILA -- Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has expressed interest in forging a strategic industrial partnership with the Philippines to strengthen the country's underwater defense and security capabilities.

"Indo-Pacific and the Mediterranean Sea are really very similar with a lot of commonality. Fincantieri really would like to be a strategic industrial partnership for the Philippines to protect our ocean," Fincantieri Naval Vessels Division Area Manager Aurora Buzzo said at a Stratbase ADR Institute forum in Makati City on Wednesday.

Fincantieri and Germany's thyssenkrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) earlier teamed up to be chosen as the manufacturer of the Philippines' first-ever submarines as part of the country's ongoing Armed Forces modernization program to enhance maritime deterrence.

But beyond underwater boats, Buzzo said the firm has a broad range of products to offer, including its unmanned vehicles and advanced subsea drone system that can protect critical infrastructure underwater such as gas pipelines and undersea cables.

As a partly government-owned firm, Buzzo said Fincantieri can offer flexible financing options to countries such as the Philippines and "finance up to 100 percent" of a project's contract value with a facilitated payment plan.

"We are fully committed to support a financial package for all our projects, especially eventually and hopefully here in the Philippines," she said.

"This is something that we can really arrange— we can arrange some meetings with the Navy, Ministry of Defense, and Finance of the Philippines to give all the possibilities that we can offer in terms of a financial package," she added.

Fincantieri earlier debuted the DEEP project, its first integrated subsea drone system comprised of a network of sensors for early warning and a fleet of unmanned underwater vehicles.

The system, Buzzo touted, is flexible and can easily adapt to a country's requirements be it a military security task, commercial infrastructure protection, or environmental monitoring.

Open to discussions

In the same forum, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad said Manila is open to discussing possible cooperation on the undersea domain with partners, including Fincantieri.

"Although this is under the purview of the Department of Defense, we are looking at manned and unmanned systems, not solely on submarine per se," he said.

There are three main Philippine domestic and numerous international submarine cable networks across the country.

Securing these cables, Trinidad said, is still a "new capability" and an "unexplored ground" for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippines government, with related efforts mostly focused on policy discussions and some exercises with like-minded Navies, including the United States.

Italian Ambassador to the Philippines Davide Giglio said Rome views underwater infrastructure protection as a promising area for Italy-Philippines cooperation.

"As an archipelagic nation with vast maritime resources and strategic interests, the Philippines faces both challenges and opportunities in enhancing its underwater and maritime capabilities," Giglio said.

"Italy stands ready to share its experience, support capacity building efforts, and promote joint effort with projects that link the Mediterranean and the Indo Pacific— two regions united by the same vision of stability, connectivity and sustainable growth," he added. (PNA)