MANILA — A skills facility recently donated by the Australian government to the Philippine Air Force (PAF) is expected to improve the competency of its personnel, an official said.

The PAF on Monday received from Australia a close-air support part task trainer, a classroom, and a debriefing facility.

"With this facility, the PAF will be able to address the technical training gaps of its personnel who will be given more time and training opportunities such as the use of simulator and actual flight events," Department of National Defense (DND) Undersecretary Angelito de Leon said in a statement.

The new training facility will be dedicated to the "capacity-building efforts" of the PAF's pilots and personnel whose key task is to provide close-air support to ground troops during combat operations.

The DND noted that the donation of facilities was made through the Philippines-Australia Enhanced Defense Cooperation Program, which was signed in December 2019.

"The agreement forged the robust defense relationship between the two countries, especially in terms of counter-terrorism efforts," it said.

• PH gets new air defense system, new transport aircraft for Air Force

Watch more News on iWantTFC