By Thai Newsroom Reporters
AIR FORCE CHIEF ACM Panpakdee Patanakul is scheduled to leave for Sweden later this month to close a purchase deal for another four Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets, an air force source confirmed today (Aug.5).
The four Gripen fighter jets reportedly constitute an initial batch of a dozen Swedish-made multirole combat aircraft which the Thai air force has planned to procure with its contract scheduled to be formally signed by ACM Panpakdee during his visit to the Scandinavian capital between Aug.23 and Aug.27, according to the air force source who only spoke on condition of anonymity.
Two more batches of Gripen jets consisting of four aircraft each will be procured by the Thai air force in following years. The dozen Gripen jets which combinedly cost some 60 billion baht of the taxpayer’s money would likely be based at Wing 7 in Surat Thani in addition to 11 fighter jets of the same type currently deployable at the southern air force base.
The Saab JAS 39 Gripen jet was successfully deployed in the world’s real combat for the first time ever by the Thai air force during recent air strike missions conducted alongside General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon jets against Cambodian forces in disputed border areas of the northeastern Thai provinces of Surin and Sisaket.
Today’s informal confirmation of ACM Panpakdee’s planned visit to Stockholm to sign the Gripen purchase deal apparently dampened earlier news reports that Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard might probably put on hold the planned sale of the Swedish-made multirole combat aircraft to the Thai air force in the wake of the five-day Thai-Cambodian border clashes during which those combat aircraft conducted sorties of laser-guided, precision bombardments on the intruding Cambodian forces.
The Swedish government which will have a final say to the whole aircraft purchase deal is formally obliged to take into account any relevant remark from the foreign affairs minister who is reportedly awaiting a conclusive report from the Inspectorate of Strategic Products, a government agency in charge of assessing matters pertaining to sales of Sweden’s military hardware and equipment.
CAPTION:
Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets. Top photo: Ts.2.pl_-1, Front Page photo: Amarin TV
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