By Thai Newsroom Reporters
A NO-SAIL ZONE has been officially declared to keep out all fishing boats and other civilian vessels from a five-nautical-mile radius in the sea off Prachuap Khiri Khan where the United States and Thai navies are removing armaments from a sunken ship.
The authorities have already given a stern warning to all trawlers and mercantile ships to keep out of the no-sail zone in the sea off Mae Ramphueng shores in Bang Sapan district of the southwestern province as of today (Feb.22) until March 12 in order to keep themselves out of possible danger.
The five-nautical-mile, no-sail zone for all fishing boats and other civilian vessels is designed to provide a 20-day period for some 60 US and Thai navy divers to work undersea in a joint effort to remove armaments and equipment from the navy’s corvette HTMS Sukhothai (FSG-442) which capsized and sank in stormy seas late 2022, killing 24 sailors and rendering five others missing.
Weapons aboard the sunken navy ship lying at the bottom of the sea in the Gulf of Thailand would include Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles, Aspide surface-to-air missiles, Mark-32 torpedos, a 76-mm cannon, relatively small cannons and ammunition.
Deployed in the joint US-Thai light salvage mission are HTMS Rattanakosin (FSG-441) which is of the same type as the US-built, Ratanakosin-class corvette which sank undersea, the Thai navy’s minehunter HTMS Bang Rachan (MHC-631) and landing craft HTMS Mannai (LCU-783) and the US navy’s tugboat Ocean Valor.
Thai navy chief Adm. Adung Pan-iam today visited the scene of the light salvage mission as part of the Cobra Gold 2024 joint military exercise conducted annually between the US, Thai and several other Asian forces since 1982.
Nevertheless, the navy is yet to hold a third bidding among foreign and Thai firms for the planned retrieval of the whole sunken boat from undersea, given an estimated 200 million baht in funding.
Two biddings had been earlier held but no winning bidder was selected due to failure to meet qualification specs set by the navy, according Fleet Commander Adm. Chartchai Thongsaard.
CAPTIONS:
Top: HTMS 442 Sukhothai that sank in the Gulf of Thailand on Dec. 18, 2022. Photo: Sanook.com
Front Page: The navy’s search and rescue operation for missing sailors continued even during the New Year festival that year. Photo: Thai Rath
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