After the Royal Thai Air Force introduced final week that they are aiming to purchase eight fighter jets, yesterday the Cabinet permitted the plan to fund the purchase of four planes. They estimated a price range of about thirteen.eight billion baht which shall be spread across the subsequent four fiscal years.
Stunning says the purchase is important to switch the F-16 Falcon jets that have been in operation for practically 40 years and continued use runs the chance of accidents as properly as continued excessive maintenance prices. The decision has not yet been made on exactly what type of jets to buy, however it is going to be decided by a procurement committee later, in accordance with the RTAF spokesperson.
The procurement committee is considered one of 2 panels which have been established concerning the acquisition of latest jets for the Air Force. The first will give consideration to researching the type of plane to be purchased and will be chaired by the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the RTAF. The procurement committee, headed by the RTAF Aide-de-camp, will take their suggestions and make the final decision and contract to truly buy the jets, after getting the final approval from the Cabinet.
The Air Force has been leaning towards Lockheed Martin, the US firm that produces the F-35 stealth fighter and its variants, the F-35A, B, and C that have totally different takeoff and landing characteristics. And they argue that now might be the time to buy, as costs have dropped because the F-35 first got here out and planes may be picked up for about US $82 million (2.seventy three billion baht), a discount of 42% of their authentic list price of US $142 million (4.73 billion baht)..