MALE UAV Project for Navy : Wing Loong II vs Hermes 900

12 Agustus 2021

CATIC Wing Loong II MALE UAV (photo : NAF)

On Sunday, Mr. Yuthapong Jarassathien, a member of the Maha Sarakham House of Representatives, Pheu Thai Party, gave a press conference on the Navy's procurement of submarines. As part of the press conference, information was revealed about the Navy's 4.1 billion-dollar unmanned aircraft procurement project. 

This project is a project that the Navy wants to procure a medium-flying UAV Long-distance flight or MALE (Medium-altitude Long-endurance), which is the provision of 3 systems to be stationed in each Navy area, 1 system in each region, in the nature of use is maritime patrol in the area of ​​​​each Navy's responsibility sector

However, this project has not yet been approved by the House of Representatives. therefore subject to change or may not have the budget to procure Which has to wait for the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives to cut or reduce the project or not But in the event that the project is approved Can be procured in the fiscal year 2022, from October 1, 2021 onwards, with the budget including the project is 4,100 million baht, is a budget commitment or installments for 4 years, with the annual payment period is 820 million baht, 1,200 million baht, 1,200 million baht and 880 million baht respectively

As for the selected aircraft model The Navy used quotations from two companies to submit to its Budget Committee, China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC), which reportedly offers three Wing Loong II UAVs, and Elbit Systems from the country Israel, which offers two Hermes 900 UAVs.

Elbit Systems Hermes 900 MALE UAV (photo : Krzyziek Dz)

Although the quotation submitted to the Commissioner is only a quotation for the Budget Committee's consideration. In the actual supply, there must be a median price which can request a new quote from the same company or another company. This will be more descriptive than the quotation at this stage. But the Navy chose to request a quote from these two companies for consideration of the Budget Committee. It can be considered that these two companies are among the favorites of this supply chain. This means the Navy writes a preliminary budget and TOR request based on the features and prices of these two unmanned aerial vehicles.

What is surprising is that the Navy did not choose a quotation from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) from China, the manufacturer of the CH-4A unmanned aerial vehicle. 

According to the information that the Navy uses the quotations of CATIC and Elbit as a reference for the budget. Interesting information is that in the budget of 4,100 million baht, CATIC offers 3 systems, but Elbit only offers 2 systems, which may mean the Navy writes its requirements and budgets using the Wing Loong II price reference as Main and Elbit as its more expensive counterpart. Therefore, only 2 systems can be proposed because the budget framework is set at 4,100 million baht.

In the past, although the Navy was the last armed force to have unmanned aerial vehicles. But with the supply of several drones in recent years, the Orbiter 3B, Camcopter S-100, and RQ-21 Blackjack, combined with this projec, this will make the Navy the agency that has the largest fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. It has a wide variety of unmanned aerial vehicles and missions.

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