Thailand Mulling Purchase of Japanese Sub-Hunting Aircraft
By Franz-Stefan Gady

Bangkok is also purportedly interested in amphibious rescue aircraft from Japan.

BANGKOK: -- Thailand is considering the purchase of Japan’s first indigenously developed and built maritime patrol aircraft, the Kawasaki Heavy Industries P-1, along with US-2 maritime surveillance aircraft, Nikkei Asia Review reports.

Japan’s defense minister, Gen Nakatani, is slated to meet Thailand’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, Prawit Wongsuwan, to discuss a possible arms deal in Bangkok on June 7. The talks will also cover discussions on deepening defense technology cooperation between the two countries.

“The contract, a prerequisite for exports of defense equipment from Japan, would require Thailand to get Japan’s nod before transferring or using any of the supplied equipment and related technologies for purposes other than those initially set forth,” Nikkei Asia Review states.

Full story: http://thediplomat.com/2016/06/thailand-mulling-purchase-of-japanese-sub-hunting-aircraft/

-- THE DIPLOMAT 2016-06-07

Yeah, those pesky Burmese and their infiltrating submarines.

Really? a Submarine hunting aircraft? who's submarines? is this what all those 144 army generals

thinking all day long is what to buy and who's going to come up with the most ridiculous war machine

to buy... on the other hand, it could be that the Thai government is obliged to buy something from the

Japanese on a reciprocal and bilateral bases.....

Fancy buying any defence weaponry from Japan. Didnt do to good in their last war and after what was inflicted on Asia with little or no apology and sanitising the history of the war to its people I'm surprised they are even in this day and age allowed to participate in arms dealings.

Sounds like a good plan: Now when they lose their new subs they will have an effective way to find them

Edited June 6, 201610 yr by SABloke

Japanese aircraft to find Chinese submarines, then destroying Chinese submarines using American bombs !! priceless !!

Considering the map of Thailand i can see that the South China Sea, now fully claimed by China as their sole property, comes very close to the southernmost border of Thailand. Thailand's oceanic economic zone might well be threatened by chinese fishing boats, air patrols and submarines.

Better for Thailand to buy the air patrols than the subs. But be certain the airplanes have big guns as the chinese will not listen to words alone.

No, this is not to detect & destroy enemy submarines; it to hopefully find some abandoned submarines which the Thai Navy could then fix-up and finally have some of their own subs.

Really? a Submarine hunting aircraft? who's submarines? is this what all those 144 army generals

thinking all day long is what to buy and who's going to come up with the most ridiculous war machine

to buy... on the other hand, it could be that the Thai government is obliged to buy something from the

Japanese on a reciprocal and bilateral bases.....

Slight correction on your number: the Thai military has more than 1.750 flag officers (Generals and Admirals)

Really? a Submarine hunting aircraft? who's submarines? is this what all those 144 army generals

thinking all day long is what to buy and who's going to come up with the most ridiculous war machine

to buy... on the other hand, it could be that the Thai government is obliged to buy something from the

Japanese on a reciprocal and bilateral bases.....

Slight correction on your number: the Thai military has more than 1.750 flag officers (Generals and Admirals)

Are they serious. The Khmer and Burmese submarine capability is what ? The only country they may need them for is the Japanese themselves.

“The contract, a prerequisite for exports of defense equipment from Japan, would require Thailand to get Japan’s nod before transferring or using any of the supplied equipment and related technologies for purposes other than those initially set forth,”

A prime example for a future misunderstanding in the making.

All very well buying, but procurement must discipline the top brass ,store requisitions must carry more spares , nothing is interchangeable between Japanese, Chinese Americanese swedenese etc and so your running costs soar, better to have all your equipment from one or two sources and be friends with those partners than having sixty different defence budgets and in any conflict this could mean , no friends at all...............................................

All very well buying, but procurement must discipline the top brass ,store requisitions must carry more spares , nothing is interchangeable between Japanese, Chinese Americanese swedenese etc and so your running costs soar, better to have all your equipment from one or two sources and be friends with those partners than having sixty different defence budgets and in any conflict this could mean , no friends at all...............................................

Sixty different budgets means sixty different opportunities to "manage" those budgets.

☺

It's all well and good buying all this new gear and strutting around like John Travolta at the beginning of Saturday Night Fever, but what happens should their bluff be called and pressure put upon them to stand up and be counted and actually use it? You can pretend to be everybody's pal when you have a low grade ramshackle military and play countries off against each other, but prepare to make enemies when you start playing with the big boys...

Reason for edit: Dyslexic Samsung spellchecker.

Edited June 7, 201610 yr by baboon

Wow, somebody is licking their chops over the 30% above MSRP price tag.

How to justify the need? Simple, you never know when it will be necessary, with those pesky red shirts, to set up live fire torpedo zones in the Chao Praya.

Because they are hunting for some subs to buy and someone told them these could help?

Remember that for every $100 million / 3,500,000,000 baht the military and the PM will pocket at least ten times that in the purchasing process..So why not ?

The P1 program isn't doing so well vs. the P8.

It is not an unfathomable notion it could falter, and the Junta would have bought into a more expensive, dead end niche air frame. Unable to dump on the secondary market, they would rot on Thai tarmacs like piles of Shinawatra rice.

Me thinks there is also a hint of the "other than America" political theme in this announcement, which PM/Junta have been keen on lately. The Boyz in Green don't like to be criticized.

Big boys and their big boy toys.

Why do they need a sub hunting aircraft? The average depthof the gulf of Thailand is 58 m (190 ft). Any pilot flying a plane over the gulf could spot a submarine in the water using sight alone. This is a case of keeping up with the neighborhood, military style.

"Vietnam's got one, I want one."

Someone has left a pirate DVD of " The Hunt for Red October" lying around.

It's a good thing it wasn't "Pirates of the Caribbean" or they would be trying to buy HMS Victory!

When they first mentioned getting sub's I said no they need sub hunters first or maybe only - sub hunters are more then just sub hunters they can and are used in multi task missions - we even used them over land in Vietnam after a paint job. They make great search planes and can monitor fishing fleets while still tracking any sub's - they can find and report pollution like oil spills and often follow it to the source. Location location location it is most important that they are stationed in the right area to be most effective - you can be sure they work better then air ships that can't fly.

And the beat goes on.

When they first mentioned getting sub's I said no they need sub hunters first or maybe only - sub hunters are more then just sub hunters they can and are used in multi task missions - we even used them over land in Vietnam after a paint job. They make great search planes and can monitor fishing fleets while still tracking any sub's - they can find and report pollution like oil spills and often follow it to the source. Location location location it is most important that they are stationed in the right area to be most effective - you can be sure they work better then air ships that can't fly.

think it is an excellent idea as long as they can be used for rain making activities. drought is thailands biggest enemy at the moment not foreign subs. wonder if rain making really works.

Sounds like a good plan: Now when they lose their new subs they will have an effective way to find them

You beat me too it ☺

Just how many Japanese subs do they need to hunt?

Fancy buying any defence weaponry from Japan. Didnt do to good in their last war and after what was inflicted on Asia with little or no apology and sanitising the history of the war to its people I'm surprised they are even in this day and age allowed to participate in arms dealings.

Around the time of the last war, the UK had a car and motorcycle industry...............

And if you think WWII Japanese weaponry, ships and aircraft were crap, you have a lot to learn.

All very well buying, but procurement must discipline the top brass ,store requisitions must carry more spares , nothing is interchangeable between Japanese, Chinese Americanese swedenese etc and so your running costs soar, better to have all your equipment from one or two sources and be friends with those partners than having sixty different defence budgets and in any conflict this could mean , no friends at all...............................................

But many lunch boxes.