MRT-3 trains, stations up for makeover pretty soon

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MRT-3 trains, stations up for makeover pretty soon  Malaysia rice porridge with a dash of Indian influence hit in Kuala Lumpur's Ramadan  U.S. military officers worry over the growing decline of amphibious warfare ships  For more news, visit:  ►https://www.ptvnews.ph/  Subscribe to our DailyMotion Channel: ►http://www.dailymotion.com/peoples-television-incorporated  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ►http://www.youtube.com/ptvphilippines  Like our Facebook pages: ►PTV: http://facebook.com/PTVph  ►Rise and Shine Pilipinas: https://www.facebook.com/riseandshinepilipinas  Follow us on Twitter:  ►http://twitter.com/PTVph  Follow us on Instagram: ►https://www.instagram.com/ptvph  Watch our livestream on:  ►http://ptvnews.ph/livestream/ ►https://www.dailymotion.com/PTVPhilippines  Watch our News Programs, every Mondays to Fridays  Rise and Shine Pilipinas - 6:00 - 7:00 am | 7:30 - 8:00 am Balitang Pambansa - 7:00 - 7:30 am | 12:00 - 12:30 pm | 6:00 - 6:30pm | 9:30 - 10:00 pm PTV Sports - 8:00 - 9:00 am Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon - 12:30 - 1:00 pm Sentro Balita - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Ulat Bayan - 6:30 pm - 7:00 pm PTV News Tonight -  10:00 pm - 10:30 pm  Saturday & Sunday: ►Sentro Balita Weekend - 1:30 - 2:00 pm ►Ulat Bayan Weekend - 6:15 pm - 7:00 pm

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00:00A blessed and joyful Monday everyone, yours truly Denise Osorio here and glad to bring

00:10you PTV News Now.

00:12Starting off our stories for this afternoon, enhancement and efficiency in operations are

00:17up for the MRT-3 with DOTR Head Honcho Vince Dizon's announcement of plans for the line's

00:23upgrade soon.

00:24In his response to a continuing echo of passenger concerns and complaints, the DOTR Chief Val

00:29vowed to enhance station facilities, cut down on long queues and overcrowded cars during

00:34rush hours, and ease the loading and offloading of passengers in train stations after an inspection

00:40earlier today.

00:41He also promised to improve illumination in dimly lit areas and build more covered walkways

00:46linking train stations with PUV jeepneys on the street and PU buses in the EDSA carousel

00:51or busway.

00:52With the billed lease transfer deal between the government and Metro Rail Transit Corporation

00:56or MRTC up for renewal this year, the Department of Transportation is mulling the privatization

01:02of the MRT-3 operations and services.

01:06The Nation of Islam, to include a sizable population of Filipino Muslims scattered all

01:12over the islands, is in the midst of Ramadan, the month-long period of prayer, introspection,

01:18community and fasting Muslims worldwide observe in faithful observance to the commemoration

01:23of the revelation of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad.

01:27From dawn till dusk, the Islamic faithful deny themselves food, water and completely

01:32abstain from any sexual activity.

01:34After dusk has fallen in Kuala Lumpur, the fasting is broken as families and individuals

01:39break bread and partake of nourishment in the fast-breaking meal known as Iftar.

01:44They eat their fill to replenish energy and strengthen them for the next day's fasting

01:49period.

01:50In Kuala Lumpur, Muslim volunteers in a mosque, the Malaysian capital, prep roughly 140 kilos

01:56of rice to cook a fragrant porridge known as Bubur Lambuk, which is slow-cooked in huge

02:01pots and stirred with giant ladles to feed the hundreds of the faithful for the Iftar.

02:06But the broth prepped in the Masjid India Mosque in particular uses a distinct recipe

02:11originating from the Asian subcontinent, which is such a hit to all Muslims, partaking of

02:17the specially prepared rice dish.

02:19The mosque volunteers serve the Bubur Lambuk Numbukanji version to a little over a thousand

02:24in huge bowls or packed in a thousand packets, each enough to feed a family of four.

02:32They are quick to dispatch, versatile, reliable and a no-brainer choice for the beachhead

02:37landings and for pinpoint, surgical and expedient missions.

02:41VOA's Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb on Navy and Marine officers quietly sounding

02:47the alarm on the declining number of amphibious warfare ships.

02:53When commanders across the globe need more American military power, they often turn to

02:58Marine Expeditionary Units or MEUs.

03:01Each unit is a team of about 2,000 Marines and sailors who deploy on amphibious warfare

03:06ships.

03:08It takes three amphibs, two small ones and one that looks like a mini aircraft carrier,

03:13to make an amphibious ready group or ARG, which transports the rapid response forces

03:18along with thousands more sailors.

03:20Once deployed, these Marines and sailors are the military's Swiss Army Knights, providing

03:25everything from strike power to noncombatant evacuation operations to disaster relief.

03:32Amphibs are vital to us.

03:34They're an existential part of who we are as Marines.

03:38Admiral Eric Smith, the top U.S. Marine, tells VOA the military needs three of these

03:44three ship units deployed abroad at all times.

03:47One unit from the East Coast, one from the West Coast and one from Japan, a plan known

03:53as 3.0.

03:55Can you achieve that with the number of amphibs that you have today?

03:58With the number of amphibs that we have ready today, no.

04:01I have the Marines and I have the squadrons and I have the battalions and the batteries

04:05to do it.

04:06I just don't have the amphibs.

04:08The ship shortage saga, which has steadily worsened since the early 2000s, has divided

04:13the Marine Corps and the Navy.

04:16While America was busy fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its amphib fleet, plagued

04:21with maintenance deferments and delays, fell into disrepair, says Shelby Oakley with the

04:26Government Accountability Office.

04:28You're running these ships to ground, not taking care of them.

04:31So this is kind of equivalent to just driving your car and never changing the oil and expecting

04:35it to last 15 years.

04:37It's just not going to be the case.

04:39In a perfect ship cycle, the Commandant says he needs at least 27 amphibs to continuously

04:45deploy three of these three ship argues.

04:49Nine amphibs deployed, while nine are used for training and nine are in maintenance.

04:54But 100% readiness is almost impossible.

04:57So the military says it should expect about 80% readiness, meaning about seven of those

05:03ships would be ready to deploy and seven would be ready for training.

05:08Four extra ships are required to meet the Marines' needs, for a total of 31.

05:15The Navy currently has 32 amphibs, so why don't the Marines have enough of them?

05:21Half of its amphibious ships are in poor material condition.

05:26Key systems aren't functioning the way they're supposed to.

05:29If the readiness rate is down in the 50 percentile range and it needs to be 80%, then I would

05:34say that's a crisis.

05:36One of the amphibs, the USS Tortuga, hasn't sailed in over a decade.

05:41And there are 15 more that the Government Accountability Office says are not on track

05:46to make it to the end of their 40-year service lives.

05:49Why are so many of these in bad shape?

05:51We're trying to keep an aging force ready and focused on what it needs to do.

05:58It's not just amphibious ships, it's really the whole Navy.

06:01When I started in the Navy, we had almost 600 ships.

06:04Now we've got half that.

06:05But we're still doing the same mission.

06:08Acting Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jim Kilby tells VOA the Navy is trying to tackle

06:13the issues dragging down the amphib fleet, the same way it fixed the issues grounding

06:18its fighter jets a few years ago.

06:20In this chart, if it's green, I am.

06:23If it's red, I'm not.

06:24The surface community has doubled the number of ships that completed maintenance on time.

06:28It's not where I want to be.

06:29I want to get better.

06:30It is not acceptable to have 50 percent.

06:33We want to get to 80 percent.

06:35And we owe it to the Marine Corps to do that.

06:37Meantime, the Marine Corps says the consequences are stacking up.

06:41The gaps in coverage really have already begun.

06:45There was a noncombatant evacuation operation required to get American citizens out of the

06:50Sudan when violence was erupting.

06:52And because there was no ARGMU presence, the AFRICOM commander was forced to use commercial

06:58airlines.

06:59And even when units have deployed, they did not deploy as a full force.

07:04The USS America Amphibious Ready Group deployed with two ships instead of three last year

07:11because there wasn't another amphib available.

07:14And the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group had so many maintenance delays that the Navy had

07:19to stagger each ship's deployment last year, all months later than planned.

07:25What was supposed to be a nine-month deployment resulted in just two months with all three

07:30ships together.

07:31When the Boxer wasn't there, they couldn't do F-35 operations.

07:35They couldn't support an international partner as they had planned.

07:39Who is responsible for all of these things that happened last year?

07:43The Navy is responsible, and we did not meet that in the case of the Boxer.

07:46So will this happen again?

07:48I hope it doesn't, Carla, but I can't guarantee that.

07:51The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit completed its last patrol aboard the USS America Amphibious

07:57Ready Group this month.

07:59The next deployment of one of these three-ship ARGMUs from the East Coast or Japan is still

08:04months away.

08:06And officials say one likely won't deploy from the West Coast until 2026.

08:12A Navy official says the service only budgets deploying one three-ship Amphibious Ready

08:16Group for only 10 months in the year.

08:19Because according to Kilby, the Marine Corps' 3.0 requirement is not a Navy requirement.

08:25I do not have a plan to get 3.0.

08:27I have a plan to maintain 31 ships per law in our shipbuilding plan.

08:32That plan banks on the Navy keeping six of the Amphibs in the fleet for several years

08:37beyond their expected 40-year service life, including some of those currently in poor

08:43condition.

08:44But there's huge questions about whether or not they will even make it to their expected

08:48service life.

08:49So how is that plan feasible?

08:52So we have to plan the availabilities to go do the work necessary to get them to a life

08:57cycle health assessment above poor.

09:00This is going to take at least a decade to fix.

09:03What happens if we find ourselves in a conflict with China and we start losing more ships?

09:09We're going to have a problem.

09:11The whole point for having the ARGMU out is to prevent conflict.

09:17Kilby says the Navy wants the problem solved by 2027, the year China's leader, Xi Jinping,

09:23has ordered the military to be prepared to take Taiwan.

09:26We have the Navy we have.

09:28That's the Navy we're going to have largely in 2027.

09:31And we just need to operate it more efficiently and effectively.

09:35Experts say if Beijing attempts to take Taiwan, it could catapult the U.S. and China into

09:40war while the Amphib fleet is struggling to stay afloat.

09:45Carla Babb, VOA News.

09:47The Pentagon.

09:48And that's all written for this afternoon's stories.

09:55Join us again a little later for the next set of breaking stories in our evening edition.

10:00And make it a habit to stay connected by catching the news right here.

10:04Denise Osorio here, eager to see you in a little while.

10:07And thank you for watching TTV News Now.

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