Thai Submarines may Postpone Deliveries to 2024

21 September 2021

S26T submarine (photo : wantunbizhi)

The Navy's S26T submarine has reportedly been delayed until 2024.

Back in June The submarine fleet commander told TAF in an online forum titled “Submarines and Thai Security and Regional Stability” published via TAF that the first S26T submarine may be slightly delayed due to the coronavirus, but will try to meet the original deadline and began to select the crew to receive the ship But according to the latest news, TAF expects the delivery of the vessel to be postponed until 2024.

Thailand is now in the midst of building submarines. There is a committee of the Navy to control the shipbuilding to meet the standards. By now there has been preparation for the personnel who have already taken the recruiting exam. The selected personnel will soon go to China for operational training with submarines, which will be the Navy's first submarine divers in 70 years.

But due to the epidemic situation of Covid-19 This may delay the construction of the Thai Navy's first S26T submarine. Since the next city was Wuhan, which was the first city where the Covid-19 outbreak occurred, there were several shutdowns during the first phase of the outbreak. According to the agreement, the submarine will be delivered in 2023 and there is information that the shipbuilding control committee to speed up the implementation of the plan. Causing China to speed up its plans to deliver on time.

But the latest is expected that the delivery of the vessel may be postponed until early 2024 before the ship returns to Thailand for further training, which after receiving the ship Must bring the ship back to test, which will need to practice and learn more There will be Chinese officials coming to practice with the Thai side as well for more expertise. And during normal times, the Navy will be able to conduct training and operations at the same time. Because when underwater, it can perform missions in patrolling for news.

The Navy has supplied one S26T submarine from China. The contract was signed in 2017 for 1 ship, worth 13.5 billion baht. The first steel plate cutting ceremony was held on September 4, 2018, but for the 2nd and 3rd ships, it has been postponed three times due to the economic situation. The S26T is based on the Yuan-class Type-039B submarine, with a length of about 66 meters, displacement of 1,850 tons, displacement of 2,300 tons, travel speed of 16 knots, and a maximum depth that can be dived. 300 meters, operating range of 8,000 nautical miles, mission duration up to 65 days. The Navy is expected to be armed with a 50 km range of Yu-9 torpedoes, CM-708UNB anti-ship and ground attack missiles range 300 km with mines released from torpedo tubes.

(TAF)