The navy will build its second offshore patrol vessel, this one to be armed with guided missiles, at an estimated cost of 5.5 billion baht in three years.
Vice Adm Jumpol Lumpiganon, deputy chief-of-staff and spokesman for the Royal Thai Navy, said on Monday the first OPV the navy built was HTMS Krabi.
The second offshore patrol vessel would be developed from the design of the first OPV, which was based on a design by BAE Systems Ships Co of England, he said.
The navy had signed a contract to buy the vessel's design and materials from Bangkok Dock Co, a state enterprise under the Defence Ministry. The Mahidol Naval Dockyard of the Naval Dockyard Department would build the vessel and the Naval Ordnance Department will be responsible for its weapons systems.
The navy had developed its vessel building capability from building its own coastal patrol craft to building the first OPV, Vice Adm Jumpol said. HTMS Krabi was officially delivered in 2013.
Of the 5.5-billion-baht budgeted cost of the second OPV, 2.8 billion baht was for the vessel design, materials, tests, training, technology transfer, insurance and transport, and 2.7 billion baht for operating systems, weapons and project management.
The second OPV would cost more than the first, which came in at 2.93 billion baht, because in addition to main and secondary guns, it would also be equipped with a Harpoon anti-ship missile system, Vice Adm Jumpol said.
(Bangkok Post)
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