Sourced : Defence World.net
Royal Thai Navy is currently coordinating process for a government-to-government purchase of three Chinese-built Yuan-class submarines, Thailand’s Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan said.
Prawit, who is concurrently the Defense minister, declined to tell how soon the coordinating process for the submarines purchase deal will be completed but confirmed that a regular budget for the navy to procure the first of the three Yuan-class S26T subs, a modified export version of the Yuan-class (Type 039A or Type 041) within this year has already been earmarked and approved for current fiscal year, Xinhua reported Tuesday.
His comments followed speculation that the issue would have been brought up during Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
The budget for the purchase of the first Yuan-class sub had already been approved by the Thai government and the National Legislative Assembly, according to the deputy premier.
On 2nd of July 2015, the Royal Thai Navy formally selected China’s Yuan-class (Type 039A or Type 041). On 1st of July 2016, the Royal Thai Navy submitted a funding plan for its 36 billion baht submarine procurement project to the cabinet for consideration with the expenditure to be spread over 11 years. The first submarine would be bought for 13 billion baht (302.4 million GBP) between fiscal years 2017-2021.