The air force will put on hold its planned procurement of fighter jets, citing the government’s shift of priorities to driving economic stimulus programmes.
ACM Punpakdee Pattanakul, the air force commander, said the government’s policy has been to scale back non-urgent procurement projects as the administration diverts resources to fund projects that help prop up the economy.
The fighter jet procurement was initially planned for this year. However, ACM Punpakdee said the plan could not be shelved for too long as the current squadron of F-16 jets is old and needs to be replaced from 2028.
The new plan might have to begin from next year to ensure the jets can be acquired in time for the decommissioning of the F-16 fleet, said ACM Punpakdee.
Swedish-made Gripen jets, for instance, usually require around 10 years for an entire squadron to be delivered. The jets cannot be produced and delivered at once, and air force staff need to be trained to operate and maintain them, he said.
For this year, the air force will have to try repairing the old fighter jets to maintain their airworthiness. The commander said he recognised the importance of complying with the new government’s policy.
ACM Punpakdee said the plan cannot be cancelled because the constitution says the air force and other armed forces have a responsibility to implement the country’s national security and defence plans.
Even decommissioning the old F-16 jets will take around five years.
The new fighter jets will be procured in line with the government’s barter trade approach, said ACM Punpakdee.
Under this policy, the air force will have to first seek to buy a fighter from a country that is willing to reciprocate by buying agricultural products from Thailand of an equal value, or at a proportion to be negotiated and decided on later, he said.
Aside from postponing the fighter procurement plan, the air force will play a role in emergency and crisis response operations.
For example, the BT-67 utility aircraft will be overhauled and modified to carry water, in preparation for fighting wildfires and dealing with haze pollution, the commander said.