Thailand’s Awkward Pursuit of American F-35As

[Jen65]

6 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

Monkey business 

[Isaan sailor]

44 minutes ago, kidneyw said:

Is it possible to park these F-35s on the deck of the aircraft carrier?

That would be something:  American stealth fighters launched from a Chinese aircraft carrier.  Amazing Thailand.

[Isaan sailor]

Put that money back in the bank, Thailand—you’re screwing up currency markets enough already.

[kjun12]

The Thai military is Thailand's greatest problem.  What good has it ever done?

[cnx101]

6 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

They can be trained to fly them

[CANSIAM]

2 hours ago, userabcd said:

That's the beauty of democracy. Government representatives and lawmakers make and implement their rules and decisions and there is not a thing any citizen can do about it.

Or the beauty of the Authoritarian circle........

[overherebc]

3 hours ago, 10baht said:

What about our submarines? Was that a yes or no or maybe so?

A definite maybe.

[Zyxel]

51 minutes ago, Isaan sailor said:

That would be something:  American stealth fighters launched from a Chinese aircraft carrier.  Amazing Thailand.

The aircraft carrier was built in Spain and had 6 Harrier aircrafts (vertical take-off and landing) also provided by Spain Navy (Matador, export version of the Harrier).  The F-35s they are buying have conventional take-off and landing. The aircraft carrier does not have catapult, so the F-35s cannot be used on it.

[sawadee1947]

7 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

Oh, they sit in those F-35. As pilots ????

 

[josephbloggs]

6 hours ago, Ramdas said:

They really have their priorities backwards haven’t they ?! ????????‍♂️
Instead of learning and training people on how to drive plus having an effective police force in place who do what they’re supposed to do like stopping unlawful thai drivers and the like plus just to mention replacing ancient over polluting trucks and buses then upgrading their whole railway network they’re thinking of buying such planes ( which they won’t even be able to use ) Just so they can show it off to the Chinese ?!    Brainless to put it simple ????

And how is this different from anywhere else?  The US spends over $700 billion in the military each year yet 14.5% of the population live in poverty.

Not sure what polluting buses have to do with a military budget.

So the US should solve poverty, their awful schooling, fix their crumbling infrastructure before they can spend on the military?  I agree, that would be a wonderful thing.

[cardinalblue]

A budget of $15M for 2 planes costing $207M? It ain’t happening b/c 1. Usa doesn’t want China anywhere close to these planes and 2. That is no budget…7% down? Thailand doesn’t have enough up front cash or collateral for the usa to risk thailand defaulting so easily once in possession of these planes…

 

this is just “pie in the sky” talk with the big boys….and thailand has not earned a seat at the table…

 

stick to hosting LIV golf tournaments…

 

 

[Fore Man]

3 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

Thai army purchases make zero sense. Aircraft carriers without aircrafts, submarines without engines and now 2 attack fighterjets without weapon systems but with enormously high maintenance costs. It's unbelievable how taxpayers' money is wasted here.

Piggybacking on tomacht8, I can add that during my direct business experiences in selling defense systems to the Thais, I learned quickly that in their penchant to please everyone, they steadily have purchased multiple, dissimilar weapon systems that each generated its own specific set of logistics needs.  This zeal to spread their procurement budgets across multiple national vendors greatly complicated derivative aspects such as ordering, cataloging and storing spare parts, fulfilling maintenance requirements and undertaking proper lifecycle planning. The variety of unalike weaponry really complicated the roles of maintainers and supply personnel who have to learn esoteric, often totally unlike procedures and provide separate work/storage areas to keep it all combat ready.  
 

Moreover, I sincerely doubt that RTA pilots can be trained to effectively use even a small part of the F-35’s vast integrated system complexities..  It’s akin to a expecting a Cessna pilot to operate a 747 and takes years of highly specialized training and huge annual maintenance budgets to achieve and sustain. 
 

There is the additional aspect of sortie generation rates to consider.  In his seminal 1981 work “National Defense”, author James Fallows demonstrated how buying overly complex and costly fighter aircraft resulted in an Air Force plagued with fewer available fully combat ready aircraft to deploy against an aggressor.  Back then, his comparison pitted the F-5 against the state-of-the-art F-16, and demonstrated that far fewer combat F-16 sorties could be mounted in a given timespan.  Yes, the latter added substantial new lethality to the air battle, but it came at the cost of fielding far fewer operationally-ready air assets to confront an enemy. 
 

Perhaps in their enthusiasm to acquire the latest and greatest hardware available, the RTAF has figuratively only shot itself in the foot.

[cnx101]

8 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

 

[khaowong1]

The Royal Thai Air Force, trains at Luke Air Force Base in Goodyear Arizona.  

[henry213]

6 hours ago, Kwaibill said:

They'll be put to work at the munitions plant?

Thought they were running the country? 

[kickstart]

8 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

Agreed,I know Lopburi quite well ,and these new ammunition dumps will be built along way  from the monkeys .

A PS,for the past 2 weeks the Thai army have been having exercises near me 60 km from Lopburi ,they have brought the tanks up from Sarburi  for a run round  for a few days ,we have been hearing the big artillery guns going off most days ,sometimes at night time too.

Been going on for a long time this time ,unusual I said to the wife, practising for the next coup.

[PETERTHEEATER]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

The Royal Thai Army is bent on acquiring the state-of-the-art U.S. stealth fighter.

Then they can join the queue behind the Royal Thai Air Force.....

[PETERTHEEATER]

9 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

The planes come equipped with anti-monkey missiles. The new ammunition depot to be built in Lopburi will store the tens of thousands of reloads. 

[The Hammer2021]

Is the F35A any good? Isn't  it just the old F15 with an  extra seat?

[spidermike007]

They will never get these jets. The Americans will not approve the sale. Cha Cha cannot be trusted. He will share the technology with China. Easily. Willingly. To curry favor with the CCP. Not gonna happen. Which is good.

 

Thailand needs those jets like an Inuit needs an icebox.

Thailand needs those jets like Anutin needs more cash. Thailand needs those jets like Prayuth needs more time in office. 

Edited August 11, 2022 by spidermike007

[hotchilli]

16 hours ago, webfact said:

These combat jets will cost 7.4 billion baht ($207 million) in total, and payments will be made in installments over a four-year period.

Obscene waste of money when so much needs to be done in Thailand.

[Artisi]

17 hours ago, Geoffggi said:

Nevertheless, as pointed out by Ian Storey of Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, there is a good chance that the Biden administration will not approve F-35 sales to Thailand due to the Thai military’s close ties to its Chinese counterpart. The fear of F-35 secrets being leaked to China via Thailand may outweigh the need to strengthen the U.S.-Thai alliance.

 

 

I would consider this prudent thinking !!!!

If they purchased a couple,  within a few months you would be able to order your own on Lazada. 

[Artisi]

13 hours ago, tomacht8 said:

Thai army purchases make zero sense. Aircraft carriers without aircrafts, submarines without engines and now 2 attack fighterjets without weapon systems but with enormously high maintenance costs. It's unbelievable how taxpayers' money is wasted here.

It's not really wasted,  it fills in the day for the bosses playing their imaginary war-games plus it keeps when away from making any serious blunders. 

[ericthai]

14 hours ago, kjun12 said:

The Thai military is Thailand's greatest problem.  What good has it ever done?

coups their good at coups

[zyphodb]

14 hours ago, CANSIAM said:

Or the beauty of the Authoritarian circle........

Both...

 

[chuang]

22 hours ago, John Drake said:

What do monkeys have to do with F 35s? . . . Never mind.

Peanuts lots of Peanuts in their pockets...

[Sydebolle]

a) the Swiss air force bought the same planes at THB 6 billion a pop or THB 1.4 billion cheaper than the Thai version. Anything to do with the Thai flag on the rudders? 
b) NATO has some 820 such planes in their combined air force. Let's hope that NATO never invades Thailand then .......
c) why not just steal the money from the Ministry of Finance without air force, big toys for big boys; cheaper for everybody while the powers-to-be still can have-their-cake-and-eat-it 

Your call ???? 

[moogradod]

1 hour ago, Sydebolle said:

a) the Swiss air force bought the same planes at THB 6 billion a pop or THB 1.4 billion cheaper than the Thai version. Anything to do with the Thai flag on the rudders? 
b) .....................

The Swiss deal is for 36 planes. Maybe they would get a volume discount. Currently a referendum is running against the acquisition, but there might not be enough time to stop the deal anymore. And by the way, the F-35 comes in different versions which are as well different pricewise.

[sungod]

17 hours ago, kickstart said:

A PS,for the past 2 weeks the Thai army have been having exercises near me 60 km from Lopburi ,they have brought the tanks up from Sarburi  for a run round  for a few days ,we have been hearing the big artillery guns going off most days ,sometimes at night time too.

Been going on for a long time this time ,unusual I said to the wife, practising for the next coup.

Why would they be practicing for a coup using heavy artillery and main battle tanks?

[Excel]

Just now, sungod said:

Why would they be practicing for a coup using heavy artillery and main battle tanks?

Army on army, civil war