Source USNI

WASHINGTON, US: U.S. lawmakers want an ammunition production and storage facility at a former American naval base in the Philippines. The move addresses concerns of the lack of a forward-based manufacturing hub in the Indo-Pacific.

The House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee report on the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026, detailed the plan under procurement as “Indo-Pacific Ammunition Manufacturing.”

“The Committee is concerned with the lack of a forward-staged ammunition manufacturing facility in the Indo-Pacific. Therefore, the Committee directs the Department of Defense to assess, in coordination with the Department of State and the International Development Finance Corporation, the feasibility of establishing a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility at United States Naval Base Subic Bay,” stated the report.

While the U.S. officially withdrew from the strategically positioned Philippine port in 1992, the importance of the former naval base has been recognized in recent years amid increased defense cooperation between Washington and Manila in the face of Chinese actions in the South China Sea and Luzon Strait. The U.S. Navy plans to lease storage facilities around or near Subic Bay to host a new Marine Corps prepositioning program in the Philippines. Local yards in the bay have also maintained U.S. Navy warships and logistics vessels.

This call for joint ammunition production follows Manila’s renewed defense industrial base under the Self-Reliant Defense Posture Revitalization Act, which aims to develop Philippine industries to aid the country’s military modernization program.

“It is a commitment to a long-term growth trajectory for a national defense industry that will support the defense requirements of our country. It’s a logical move forward for a country that finds itself at the fulcrum of geopolitical shifts and volatilities,” Philippine President Marcos stated during the law’s signing last fall.

American and Philippine defense planners have identified joint defense industrial base cooperation as a priority area in the coming years. A joint vision statement on U.S.-Philippine defense industrial cooperation was released during Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s trip to Manila. Ammunition components and energetics were identified as one of the “priority areas with the greatest potential for near-term cooperation.” The report further specified that this applied to storage, all-up round production and logistics.

According to the House Appropriations Committee report, the ammunition facility would forward stage “ammunition stockpiles and related materials such as nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, and acid.” These later compounds are crucial in the production of explosives and ammunition.

Lawmakers also directed the Secretary of Defense to provide updates on the feasibility study within 60 days of the enactment of the appropriations act. If pursued, the facility would be one of the most significant American defense investments in the Philippines since the Cold War and Commonwealth era.