The air force has affirmed its intention to purchase, upgrade and repair weapons and to request the budget to do so from the government's current fiscal year budget, expected to be tabled in parliament later this month.
The air force is preparing weapons procurement plans that have been drafted over the past five years, according to the newly appointed air force commander ACM Maanat Wongwat.
Asked how confident he was in his ability to convince the opposition of the necessity of the weapons upgrades during the budget bill debates, ACM Maanat said, "Yes, I have sufficient experience [in defending a budget request plan]."
"And a great deal of the budget requested will be spent on the upgrades of old weapons, which will help save a lot of money [as opposed to buying new ones]," ACM Maanat said.
According to an informed source, the air force has a plan to upgrade 14 light attack Alpha Jets at a cost of 3.38 billion baht after about two decades of using them mainly in close air support operations, and sometimes for supporting artificial rainmaking operations conducted by the Royal Rainmaking Project.
In 1999, the air force purchased 25 used Alpha Jets from Germany for one million baht each. However, the jets required up to 49 million baht each to upgrade them, according to the source.
The air force had initially asked to purchase up 50 Alpha Jets, but the cabinet only approved half, said the source.