Drones given to Southern army authorities

[webfact]

Drones given to Southern army authorities

BANGKOK, 13 May 2015 (NNT) – Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Prawit Wongsuwan, has given unmanned aerial vehicles to the Royal Thai Army. The aircraft will be used in Southern security operations.

The Deputy PM handed over the drones on behalf of the Defense Technology Institute and the Royal Air Force Academy who jointly developed the aircraft. Deputy Defense Minister General Udomdej Sitabutr, as the Army Commander, received the drones.

The aircraft are able to operate in a radius of more than 10 kilometers for at least one and a half hours, and have the capacity to fly up to 500 meters above the ground. The aerial vehicles can be controlled manually from base, or fly automatically, and are equipped with cameras.

The unmanned aircraft will be used for patrols in the southernmost provinces to reduce the risk of attacks on security officials.


-- NNT 2015-05-13

[Thai at Heart]

Why on earth would you tell anyone about this?

500m height?

Hmmmmm

[JAG]

Jolly handy for looking for hidden camps in the jungle.........

Bet they don't get used for that though!

[smutcakes]

What could go wrong....

[MJKT2014]

Seems more plausible than the blimp airship.

[SaratogaRay]

It's about time someone has the sense to use a vehicle that can track the bad guy's, only the one they have is too limited to do much good. Why doesn't some one contact the US Government and have them fly one of there day

and night drones over the area and catch the bomb planters in action or follow them home. Also the night is open

to see all the illegals in the woods etc thru heat detectors. I tried over a year ago to inform the military the advantages of using drones with no luck, i hope somebody will try and use them.

[MaiChai]

Do they have any safety features?

[novo58]

Are these the ones that anyone can buy at a good high-end electronics shop..................just an expensive toy really.

Or are they real military standard surveillance drones ????

[joebrown]

Do they have any safety features?

The drones (and all other surveillance equipment) have a special safety feature of Thai origin. It's programmed to 'look the other way' and if necessary self-destruct if it observes person(s) of influence/VIPs or high ranking officers engaging in nefarious activities.

[Seastallion]

Are these the ones that anyone can buy at a good high-end electronics shop..................just an expensive toy really.

Or are they real military standard surveillance drones ????

"the Defense Technology Institute and the Royal Air Force Academy who jointly developed the aircraft. "

That could possibly mean that they modified the shop-bought ones with their own designed livery.

[geriatrickid]

I believe these are off the shelf commercial drones that have been modified. They are certainly not up to the same standard as those developed by Israel and the USA. I don't think that aside from Israel's export unit, Thailand could have purchased the higher quality machines even if it wanted.

The USA has only been supplying drones to trusted allies (e.g. UK, Australia South Korea) and the 3rd largest producer of drones, Canada, like the smaller EU exporters probably would not have been willing to sell any to Thailand because of its laws on exports to countries with human rights concerns. I believe that Thailand had an opportunity to purchase Israeli products but the equipment was not pursued because of cost and

complexity. The training and support infrastructure may have been too difficult for Thailand to assume. Israel has been exporting a stripped down version of its high tech military versions that is popular for wildlife tracking, border security and general surveillance. Turkey has a more sophisticated military version of Israeli drones and rumor has it, that one arab country has Israeli drones. China has a small export market to African countries, but may have not have had what Thailand wanted.

[EnglishJohn]

Definitely smallish fixed wing types for that flight duration.

I saw one at a show a few years back and it was very basic : a standard, unstabilised video camera at the front.

Not sure how much use it is going to be in an area like that. About as useful as those fixed-wings Sukumpol sent to get some budget to his Air Force during the Pheu-Thai sham at tackling the issue.

I wonder if they are going to tell us how many crash.

I also wonder what happened to the Thai Navy helicopter UAV being developed by Kasama. This would be a good application for it. Lots of fanfare then suddenly nothing once it is supposed to be flying with an autopilot. I expect it fulfilled it's mission : spend as much budget as possible until it is cut off.

Thailand and technology don't mix.

[PETERTHEEATER]

There main function will be to lift the Thai Army airship into the sky........

[Srikcir]

The army doesn't need drones.

It has been successful finding and firing on muslim temples and madrassas with boots on the ground.