Four Contenders Identified for the RTN's Maritime MALE UAV Project

16 Desember 2021

Naval Acquisition Management Office (NAMO), Royal Thai Navy announced to acquire 1 system of MALE UAV) comprising 3 aircrafts. The potentail platforms might be included Elbit Systems Hermes 900 (Kochav), IAI Heron TP (Eitan), Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Wing Loong II and GA-ASI MQ-9 Reaper (photo : USAF)

Naval Acquisition Management Office (NAMO) of The: Naval Acquisition Management Office) Royal Thai Navy has published a document head. 'Secret' in the Thai Navy's central procurement and price information center in mid-December 2021.

Announcement of the project to purchase an unmanned aerial vehicle at a coastal aviation base by selection method set middle price (Reference price) on December 8, 2021 in the amount of 3,962,040,000 baht ($118,693,250). The source of the median price was obtained from the market price investigation of 4 companies as follows: 

-Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd (IAI) - Heron TP (Eitan), 

-Elbit Systems Ltd Israel - Hermes 900 (Kochav),

-China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC), People's Republic of China - Wing Loong family, and 

-General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.(GA-ASI) in the United States - MQ-9 Reaper.

Wing Loong II (photo : Naval Air Ice)

The TOR: Terms of Reference has not been published for details of the Coastal Aircraft UAV required by the Royal Thai Navy. But there is preliminary information that will be provided. 1 The system consists of 3 aircraft with related equipment and tools.

It is likely to be a medium-long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV: ​​Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), according to the Royal Thai Naval Air Division (RTNAD) developing its own unmanned aerial vehicles both procuring systems from foreign countries such as Unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance, type 1, Royal Thai Air Force 1 Aeronautics Orbiter 3B, Schiebel Camcopter S-100 and Boeing Insitu RQ-21 Blackjack and domestically developed systems such as MARCUS-B.

Heron TP (photo : IAI)

From the list of 4 companies that are the source of the middle price Possible MALE UAVs to be proposed for consideration include the Elbit Hermes 900 and the IAI Heron TP, which are stationed in the Israeli Air Force as Kochav and Eitan respectively, The Wing Loong family of unmanned aerial vehicles of AVIC (Aviation Industry Corporation of China), China's state-owned aerospace industry enterprise, as state-owned enterprise CATIC acts as the export agent of AVIC's aviation products in the international market, and the U.S. GA-ASI MQ-9 Reaper family, which according to the Naval Commander's fiscal year policy An earlier published 2020 report states that a similar level of unmanned aerial vehicle is required for the MQ-1 Predator, which is also a product of US GA-ASI.

MALE UAV from the four companies in the three countries exemplified above. Which will be submitted documents on January 14, 2022, is an aircraft that has been stationed in the armed forces of the producing country and/or producing a large number of exports to foreign countries, including being put into operation in real life.

Hermes 900 (photo : Elbit Systems)

MALE UAV from these four companies can choose to install various accessories according to user needs, and most of them can be armed, such as the US MQ-9 Reaper and the Wing Loong II China  unmanned aerial vehicle.

However, it is reported that the Coastal Base UAVs required by the Royal Thai Navy may not be required to have weapons capabilities, such as the Hermes 900 and the Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicles exported in the photograph, installation of surveillance and pointing systems only.

(AAG)