Lost vessel a workhorse of the fleet

Lost vessel a workhorse of the fleet

The HTMS 'Sukhothai' is seen at an annual military drill at Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri in March this year when it launched torpedoes. The corvette sank on Sunday. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)
The HTMS 'Sukhothai' is seen at an annual military drill at Sattahip Naval Base in Chon Buri in March this year when it launched torpedoes. The corvette sank on Sunday. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)

HTMS Sukhothai, a Royal Thai Navy corvette had been in service since 1987.

It was one of two Ratanakosin-class corvettes -- HTMS Ratanakosin (FS-441) and HTMS Sukhothai (FS-442) -- built by the now-defunct Tacoma Boatbuilding Company in the United States.

HTMS Sukhothai was named after the first king of the Sukhothai Kingdom and had an overall length of 76.7 metres, was 9.6m in width, and 26.82m in height with a sonar dome measuring 4.5 metres.

Its main tasks were anti-submarine warfare, maritime patrols, convoy escorts, and providing supporting fire against shore targets.

The Sukhothai was equipped with advanced weapon systems and sensors allowing it to take on multiple tasks from submarine suppression to dealing with threats in the air and from surface vessels.

The warship was equipped with a 76/62-mm gun, a twin 40L70 Compact naval mount featuring anti-missile, anti-aircraft defences and ship-to-ship systems, two Oerlikon 20mm autocannons, and six torpedo tubes (MK32 Mod5).

It was also equipped with subsonic antiship missiles fired from two Harpoon block 1C surface-to-surface missile launchers and an eight-cell Albatros surface-to-air missile launcher, with surface-search, air-search radar and fire control radars including Sperry Vision Master FT, Furuno, Scout, and DA05 aerial radars.

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