Thailand to Upgrade Fleet, Chooses Chinese to Provide Three Submarines



Three Chinese-made submarines worth 355 million dollars each may be purchased by Thailand for its Royal Navy, the newspaper Bangkok Post reported on Friday, citing a source in the country's procurement committee.

The decision was made on Thursday, when the majority of the 17-strong committee said "yes" to the Chinese submarines, saying that it was the "best value for money". Other committee members remained split between offers from South Korea and Germany.

According to the source, the committee voted to buy the Chinese submarines because they are "equipped with superior weaponry and technology and are also able to stay underwater longer."

In July 2014, the Royal Thai Navy inaugurated a state-of-the-art submarine squadron headquarters and training center for this squadron, even though the navy has had no submarines in its fleet since 1951.

The squadron's facilities, which include a German submarine simulator, were established at an existing naval base in Sattahip, east of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand.

The submarine project has been repeatedly supported by Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, who pointed to the country's ever-increasing territorial challenges and maritime missions.

Earlier, the Thai government allocated almost 6 million dollars for the navy dealing with the feasibility of purchasing submarines from Germany, South Korea or China.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150626/1023868397.html

China Builds Top Secret Midget Submarine



The space snapshots captured by DigitalGlobe show the vessel berthed at the shipyard pier used for fitting out submarines. The midget submarine had left the pontoon by late November and by mid-January 2015, another submarine, probably a Type 041 Yuan-class boat, occupied the pier.

According to imagery measurements, the midget submarine has an approximate length of 35 meters and beam of 4 meters, which suggests a surface displacement around 400-500 tons.

The 127th Ordinance Institute, of the Central Northern University, China, handed over a new 125mm cannon to People's Liberation Army officers at a June 10, 2015 ceremony.

Midget submarines – sometimes called mini or coastal subs – typically weigh below 150 tons and are operated by small teams. Their small size limits their endurance, often forcing them to operate alongside a mother ship.

In the past, the vessels been used for harbour penetration, concealed attacks on individual ships, or for reconnaissance purposes. Most of today's midget subs – from North Korea and Iran – are regularly armed with torpedoes and mines.

As Chris Biggers points out at open-source intelligence website Bellingcat, media outlets have reported on China fielding midget submarines, but no reports exist suggesting China is currently building such a vessel. The boat could be for a foreign customer, Biggers notes.

The Wuchang shipyard is at the forefront of conventional submarine production in China. It is best known for building China's novel Type 032 Qing class vessels, which is the world's largest conventional submarine.

http://sputniknews.com/asia/20150627/1023908612.html

Butterworth base is already been planned for a land-swap redevelopment, new air base is planned at Ara kuda

The journalist probably never heard of planespotters, any pictures taken outside the base looking into the base or the planes in it is not against the law (more like there's no law for it) and these guys can literally camp just outside the security fence

The problem with butterworth is that its an old legacy ww2 british airbase and any expansion is out of the question, so the air force have planned it to move to new location in few years time

Sungai besi pun sama....Lumut naval base pun sama....
in malaysia, development is priority over security.

But I still salute to the journalist...... this is the issue that ignored by ppl especially those higher authorities. Many bases have this kind of problem...which is not supposed to be

Actually very ridiculous that private homes are right at the doorstep of a military base.

There should have been a safety buffer radius for the airbase.

This couple of months are really bad for military aviation. Today an Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules crashed in Medan.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/ar...jectid=11473561

^^^ Rest In Peace. Speedy recovery to the injured.

I am not only referring to Indonesia but the whole military aviation in general, the number of air accident involved military plane are at all time high.

C130 does not even come cheap these day

Should consider c130J

Tapi mahal ke

instead of that we should be looking for longer range tanker compared to our current KC130

like 2 330 MRTT

I though all ship used same diesel

Dam learn something today