September 18, 2009: Thailand is buying 15,037 Tavor assault rifles from Israel

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/ar...s/20090918.aspx

The Royal Thai Army purchased 15,000 T.A.R. 21 rifles. The second batch of 15,037 was ordered ... An additional 13,868 ... purchased ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavor#cite_note-17

BangkokPost.com 15/09/2009 ... The cabinet on Tuesday approved the Defence Ministry's proposal to buy ... assault rifles from Israel

http://shrinkify.com/181r

45,000 new assault rifles.

My question: why?

What is on the horizon to motivate a massive purchase like that?

(I am not looking for discussion about guns-good-or-bad, although I expect some will read the word "gun" and start to rant. I'm a former, firearms instructor, so such rants would be wasted me. I hope moderators will consider them off-topic. However, I will gladly use any such rants as targets for my "Ignore User" list on this forum.)

-- Oneman

Chiangmai

Edited September 19, 200916 yr by Oneman

Why? Because you can't announce things like Thailand to purchase 500 x 7 series Beamers and S500's for military use (can't have the top brass driving around older models from 3 yaers ago). So you have to put in orders for things you might plausibly need. Maybe you'll shrink the order later, and heck, you can also sell guns to the Africans.

And so another conspiracy theroy starts...

As a firearms instructor you should know the firearms in question are "rifles"...not "Guns"... ...

Remember the old military ditty ?...."this is my rifle, This is my gun, this ones for killing and this one's for fun"

Go and ask the same question of the US or UK about their assualt rifle purchases this year, Thailand is a sovereign nation and can purchase what ever miltary hardware they are prepared to pay for...

A none event....

I have no idea of the expected lifespan of an assault weapon under military use but don't really see why this order would be unusual. Thailand has approx 300,000 military personnel who obviously need new equipment from time to time.

Off course, Heng could just as likely be right

And they probably found that it is time to upgrade their weaponry.

Many do these days.

Still using the old M 16, maybe time to get something new...

Will one of those find its way to JJ, i wonder?

Penkoprod

Not bothered to Google the Israeli Assault Rifle but I bet its half the weight and half the size of the M16.

I saw a couple of young soldiers yesterday in mae sai with what looked like M16's. The rifles where bigger than the Soldiers.

Just time to modernise maybe.

UK did the same a few years ago. replaced SLR with SA80.

Might be its time for new ones..

Has any one considered that the realm is looking down the barrel of a civil war.

What are the delivery dates because they could arrive too late

And if not a civil war what would they use then for anyway.

The minister of defence has already deferred the deployment of any Thai's to join the peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan "because it's too dangerous there at the moment" What a laugh

What a bunch of 'big girls blouses'

What Thailand really needs is several thousand bales of cotton wool to wrap their soldiers in.

Edited September 19, 200916 yr by john b good

Has any one considered that the realm is looking down the barrel of a civil war.

What are the delivery dates because they could arrive too late

And if not a civil war what would they use then for anyway.

And so the conspiracey theories start....

FWIW those Isreali rifles are badass.

OneMan or other knowledgeable folks. This is the gun of JJ's the hotheaded Jetski rental guy in "Big Trouble in Thailand" series.

What the heck is this gun? I am going to guess a .22 LR semi. Any educated guesses?

after the coup, a lot more money was flowing to the military.

they also get paid extra, by the government for the ISA when it is in force.

with this new money they are going on a shopping spree.

not sure if they have a plan to use them or not, i hope not.

FWIW those Isreali rifles are badass.

OneMan or other knowledgeable folks. This is the gun of JJ's the hotheaded Jetski rental guy in "Big Trouble in Thailand" series.

What the heck is this gun? I am going to guess a .22 LR semi. Any educated guesses?

BB gun, put out ur eye if ur not careful: http://thailandlandofsmiles.com/2009/09/12...nd-documentary/

btw, there is nothing wrong with old m16s, they still kill people wearing the wrong color shirt.

Sad news for FN Herstal...

Thailand used to love toys coming from my country

I know I'd be pushing for every major purchase I could get if I were a top general, because eventually, it's going to be someone else's call. Same for police generals. You better tax your base hard while you have the juice.

Why do they need another 45000 assault rifles?

Blame it on the teenage Cambodian logger.

To replace the ones that seem to have gone missing from the quatermasters stores...

Why is Thailand buying Assault Rifles?

Thailand has also inked a contract to buy 15,037 Tavor TAR-21 assault rifles from Israel. This $30.1 million buy will boost the Thai military's total stock of the bullpup-design rifles to more than 30,000 - replacing many of the Army's aging rifles.

Source:http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3722292 (my emphasis)

Other reasons seem to include overall modernization plans, and Thailand's 'tropical needs', however, it would not be proper to theorize that the deal has any connection with the current government's domestic agenda.

The deal, a modernization boon to Thailand's military, was inked under a shroud of political unrest. To approve the package, the prime minister and his Cabinet convened many provinces away from their Bangkok compound, still occupied as of Sept. 12 by protesters demanding Samak's resignation.

I don't think it's a sign of impending military build-up. As an aside, I'm particularly impressed by the government's choice of small arms in this instance, they got a good deal on cutting-edge tech.

Desperate times, financially!!

I'd say watch out farrang!! Not just on the baht buses!!

Why is Thailand buying Assault Rifles?

Thailand has also inked a contract to buy 15,037 Tavor TAR-21 assault rifles from Israel. This $30.1 million buy will boost the Thai military's total stock of the bullpup-design rifles to more than 30,000 - replacing many of the Army's aging rifles.

Source:http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=3722292 (my emphasis)

Other reasons seem to include overall modernization plans, and Thailand's 'tropical needs', however, it would not be proper to theorize that the deal has any connection with the current government's domestic agenda.

The deal, a modernization boon to Thailand's military, was inked under a shroud of political unrest. To approve the package, the prime minister and his Cabinet convened many provinces away from their Bangkok compound, still occupied as of Sept. 12 by protesters demanding Samak's resignation.

I don't think it's a sign of impending military build-up. As an aside, I'm particularly impressed by the government's choice of small arms in this instance, they got a good deal on cutting-edge tech.

2000 bucks each?

Something fishy here

2000 bucks each?

Something fishy here

Indeed. Why are they so cheap?

2000 actually seems like a good deal, any Israeli made weapon is worth the price. The Thais are getting a good weapon, the Tavor earned high marks with soldiers in the 2006 Lebanon war. The rifle is fairly advanced, it comes with a built in laser aiming device and Mars holographic sight.

Israeli Military Industries is trying to get this rifle out onto the market. The global market is saturated with new infantry rifles, I think that explains why the reasonable price.

Also, it's a really cool looking rifle:

Edited September 20, 200916 yr by dizbukhapeter

My question: why?

my question: "why not?"

These are not nuclear bombs. So what?

Probably someone was watching Future Weapons in the Discovery Channel.

September 18, 2009: Thailand is buying 15,037 Tavor assault rifles from Israel

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htweap/ar...s/20090918.aspx

The Royal Thai Army purchased 15,000 T.A.R. 21 rifles. The second batch of 15,037 was ordered ... An additional 13,868 ... purchased ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavor#cite_note-17

BangkokPost.com 15/09/2009 ... The cabinet on Tuesday approved the Defence Ministry's proposal to buy ... assault rifles from Israel

http://shrinkify.com/181r

45,000 new assault rifles.

My question: why?

What is on the horizon to motivate a massive purchase like that?

(I am not looking for discussion about guns-good-or-bad, although I expect some will read the word "gun" and start to rant. I'm a former, firearms instructor, so such rants would be wasted me. I hope moderators will consider them off-topic. However, I will gladly use any such rants as targets for my "Ignore User" list on this forum.)

-- Oneman

Chiangmai

Why? Because you can't announce things like Thailand to purchase 500 x 7 series Beamers and S500's for military use (can't have the top brass driving around older models from 3 yaers ago). So you have to put in orders for things you might plausibly need. Maybe you'll shrink the order later, and heck, you can also sell guns to the Africans.

Not to mention the black market and I don't mean Africans.

Has any one considered that the realm is looking down the barrel of a civil war.

What are the delivery dates because they could arrive too late

And if not a civil war what would they use then for anyway.

And so the conspiracey theories start....

Hmm, considering the civil war in the South of Thailand (over 4,000 killed since 2004), the fact that these weapons were 'bought' from Israel and what do you expect? Maybe they were 'gifts.'

To replace the ones that seem to have gone missing from the quatermasters stores...

Nah, those were BB guns. .... to replace the ones that never arrived in shipments.

Let's hope this shipment actually arrives with the real thing, instead of some cheap knockoffs.

Now I think about it, I need to upgrade my gun

When I clicked on the link to this thread I got an error message: IPS Driver Error

Anyone else get this? I think it's being blocked. Government doesn't want us talking about their hardware purchases?

I'm in now by a workaround.