Manila: The Philippines is due to receive, from the United States, a weather-sensing blimp that can also detect and maritime threats.

According to Philippine Navy spokesperson Capt. Lued Lincuna, officials of the US Embassy led by US deputy embassy chief of mission to the Philippines Michael Klescheski, will officially handover a Tethered Aerostat Radar System (TARS) on Tuesday at the Naval Education and Training Command in San Antonio, Zambales.

TARS are static unmanned blimps — giant, stout sausage-shaped balloons that are tethered hundreds of metres from the ground.

The equipment is being supplied as part of a US assistance programme to improve the country’s security and disaster management capabilities.

Being a balloon, the blimp can hover over a given location, for extended periods, compared to an aeroplane which has to land to refuel. This makes blimps cheaper to maintain and operate.

And because it is in an elevated position, its radar is more powerful as it can detect threats or changes in the weather for longer distances compared to ground-based systems.

The Philippines had suffered limitations in its threat and intrusion detection capabilities for years and the addition of the TARS is expected to cover these shortcomings substantially.

According to Lincuna, the TARS would be assigned for use by the Philippine Navy and will serve in an over watch role guarding the country’s coastal waters and airspace from intrusion.

Likewise, the TARS is also an oversized weather balloon that could provide valuable weather-related data such as ambient temperature, pressure, wind speed and other information needed for weather forecasting.

The TARS would be received by the Philippines two years after former US President Barack Obama promised his counterpart, then President Benigno Aquino III of this particular equipment.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana more TARS are expected to be turnover by the US to the Philippines as the country builds up its maritime domain awareness and defence capabilities.

Aside from the TARS, the Philippines is expected to receive, two years from now, the ScanEagle — an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) that can monitor the country’s sea borders and track inland and at sea targets.

The ScanEagle can remain aloft for up to 20 hours without refuelling.

The Philippines is an archipelago of more than 7,000 islands has one of the largest coastal areas in the world.

Its vast expanse of maritime territory makes the country’s seas susceptible to intrusion and poaching.