The real sting in the Black Widow Spider's bite

The ambition to manufacture more armaments domestically will be wastefully expensive, further bloating a military that ought to be lean and trim

BANGKOK: -- The Black Widow Spider, a made-in-Thailand armoured personnel carrier given a suitably "ominous" name for a piece of military equipment (it's to be hoped the police don't get one), represents a teaser of sorts for what the future might hold.

Unveiled at last week's "Defence & Security" trade fair, the Black Widow is the first major military vehicle ever manufactured in this country, and Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, who's also Defence Minister, wants to see more.

If the military-led government has its way, the private sector will be teaming up with the Defence Technology Institute next year to produce or assemble more such equipment. Prawit said the Army, Navy and Air Force have been "asked" to buy locally made hardware once it becomes available.

Meeting our own needs rather than importing from abroad is a commendable goal - except when it's more expensive.

Meeting our own needs rather than importing from abroad is a commendable goal - except when it's more expensive.

Thwarting the Thai military's ambition is the fact that domestic manufacturers are at present unable to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology involved. If the government wants a local industry so that it can slap "Made in Thailand" labels on defence hardware, it will have to invest massively in research and development, an area that's never been the country's strong suit in any field.

Given this shortcoming, jumping into manufacturing weapons systems would be extremely expensive. Importing the gear will remain the most viable option for the foreseeable future. Rather than producing more showpieces like the Black Widow Spider for bragging purposes, the military should be spending taxpayers' money more wisely.

One of the aims in laying the groundwork for local armaments production is to foster closer cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, what Prawit calls "mutual growth". With the onset of the Asean Economic Community, forging a regional military industry does have appeal, but it's hardly cost-effective.

When former Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont was Army chief, he set up a series of marksmanship competitions to build personal connections among the military brass of the region. It was a low-cost but effective way to bring the soldiers together and develop a sense of unity, even camaraderie.

A region-wide defence technology industry would be an entirely different matter, requiring an immense and long-term financial commitment.

In addition, before the Thai military charges into uncharted territory, we say again that it needs to assess its own scale and effectiveness. The Armed Forces are simply bloated beyond useful efficiency. With more generals and admirals on the payroll than many developed nations, they're spending most of their budget on salaries and pensions rather than modernisation and capability enhancements.

So a better move at this stage would be trimming personnel, mainly off the top. That might clear away the rigid, outdated mindset that sees progress only in further expansion, bigger always as better.

The utter absence of threats from abroad notwithstanding, what Thailand needs is a "lean and mean fighting machine", not an aged bureaucracy rendered almost immobile by its girth. We need its leaders to be mindful of far more pressing needs than hi-tech submarines, scary troop carriers and, perish the thought, more surveillance blimps.

The ill-considered reconnaissance dirigible was, of course, intended to curtail the insurgency in the southern provinces. That tragic conflict continues unabated. Is the intention now to send in the Black Widow? How long would it be before a home-made roadside bomb flips it on its back?

The junta should be mulling its historical legacy and stop wasting money that would be better spent in more practical ways.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/The-real-sting-in-the-Black-Widow-Spiders-bite-30272798.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-13

If those APC are anything like the buses that they produce here that keeps toppling over

on a daily bases, than this black widow will truly turn around to a deadly true to it's name...

Steyr-puch chassis?

Might I suggest an all-terrain armoured platform that doesn't run on fossil fuels, and already has historic connections to the Thai fighting man!

Hope it was not copied from the Leonardo Divinci design,

why no pictures of the Black widow.

regards Worgeordie

Yes, buy domestic products.....we don't want to deal with foreign business because they can ask too many questions. Oh this APC costs X per unit, why did you sell them at 3 times the MSRP? Where did that extra money go?

As the " Black Widow " isn't a native of Thailand the brand name is an US and OZ species , so Thailand is similar to China , copying already, but seriously if you got rid of 75% of the Military establishment you would still have 75% too many, the military seem to have first preference on everything, yet we have a national disaster on the door step in a critical water shortage and the Administration to spend millions on high tec home made weapons ,this is all very well if you have two things resources and experience , one hopes that the rockets to be used in the rain making are built in Thailand as international suppliers would be Piss!!g themselves with laughter.................................

I really do despair at this Country sometimes. On the one hand we have the disastrous rice scheme which the current Government is busy persecuting the the previous Government for, whilst at the same time is squandering billions of baht on useless submarines, missile systems and now this expensive white elephant. Not to mention useless aircraft carriers, useless bomb detectors, useless blimps etc. etc.etc.

The only military vehicle in the world lacking a maintenance manual.

"The utter absence of threats from abroad"........

But plenty of threats from within the country!

To defend against what exactly? Neither the French nor the British wanted Siam, and I doubt anyone wants Thailand.

"it will have to invest massively in research and development, an area that's never been the country's strong suit in any field."

Don't anyone ever say that it's impossible to get truthful and accurate reporting.

Thailand is incapable of making anything in this league. The budgets are siphoned away through graft and corruption and the final product ends up being the cheapest, most basic thing possible to build.

When they have finished, nobody else in the world wants to buy it. And to save face, Thailand keeps one or two which it just uses for public display as if to say "look we did a good thing".

Just like that airship. Whoever was responsible for that should be peeling potatoes.

I wonder why nobody picks up on that anti-protester monster Pheu-Thai bought. Did everything possible - including burn if you threw a petrol bomb at it so it was never used.

Hey how about Just raising pigs by the thousands we all know how much Muslim's love swine and then turn them loose in the south that should get results, or at least pork prices drop at least.

Stupid waste of money regardless while masses of citizens suffer under poor education systems and health care access.

Lack of parental supervision?

It's a private business. If it makes good products other countries will buy their stuff anyway. If it's rubbish it will fail.. What's the problem?

The article fails to mention that this is not a Thai designed product. It is designed by Ricardo Defence of the UK and many of its major components are actually from International companies.

http://defense-update.com/20131106_black_widow_spider_afv.html

I know this is preaching to the choir, but why not throw some money at an industry they'd have a prayer in?

Will the thing have an engine or will it just be an empty shell like those British bomb detectors?

I really do despair at this Country sometimes. On the one hand we have the disastrous rice scheme which the current Government is busy persecuting the the previous Government for, whilst at the same time is squandering billions of baht on useless submarines, missile systems and now this expensive white elephant. Not to mention useless aircraft carriers, useless bomb detectors, useless blimps etc. etc.etc.

Ha..stupid farang...the plan is to put wheels on the submarines so they can be used in the drought that will come next year...this is called forward planning.

Do you think all our generals sit on their bum doing nothing?...planning..planning..that is the secret.

Did a thai write this article? If so, well done. The country needs more critical, realistic articles like this, but in the Thai language press for the general population to read. Bloated military officer corps etc.

Recardo is a top British defence contractor. Also renowned for designing drive train and engine systems. I I would suggest the only input on the side of the Thai development.. Was wielding the body together. Which under X-ray is probably filled with major structural flaws. There input is probably no more than assembling a kit car or model aeroplane.

The article is a well written critique on the miss use and complete wast of public funds.

As mentioned R&D is critical to the evolvement and development of these types of defence systems. So thailand save your pennies and buy new from the experts . It just an ego trip on the behalf of some brass idiot trying to how big his D.......k is.