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BANGKOK (Reuters) -The Thai Air Drive stated on Tuesday it needed to accumulate Gripen 39 fighter jets constructed by Sweden’s SAAB to switch its ageing jet fighters.
The Air Drive stated it had spent 10 months weighing all choices earlier than deciding “the JAS 39 Gripen E/F has the potential to match the demand of the army doctrine and the Air Drive’s technique,” the assertion stated.
The Thai Air Drive was initially selecting between the Gripen and the U.S.-made Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets with the ultimate resolution to purchase remaining topic to approval by the Thai cupboard.
“I can affirm that the Thai Air Drive have communicated their want to buy the Gripen fighter jets sooner or later,” a SAAB spokesperson instructed Reuters.
There may be at present no contract or order in place, the spokesperson added.
Thailand at present has 11 JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets and dozens of American F-16 and F-5 jets, a few of which have been in operation for the reason that late Nineteen Eighties
The Air Drive had already requested a finances of 19 billion baht ($560 million) for 2025 fiscal 12 months for the acquisition of 4 new unspecified fighter jets, to be acquired over 2025 to 2029.
That is a part of its long-term plan to accumulate an total of 12 new fighter jets by fiscal 12 months of 2034 to switch its ageing fighters.
The finances handed a primary studying in June with the second and third readings attributable to happen early subsequent month.
($1 = 34.0300 baht)
(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat in Bangkok, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; Modifying by Gareth Jones and Jonathan Oatis)
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