TSAMTO, August 3. On August 2, the South Korean company Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) announced the signing of a contract with the command of the Thai Air Force for the supply of two T-50TH Golden Eagle training aircraft.
According to the Yonhap agency, the cost of the agreement was $ 78 million.
The contract provides for the supply of two T-50TH TCBMS, related equipment, as well as support, maintenance and training packages. According to the terms of the agreement, all work under the contract must be completed by November 2023.
As reported by TSAMTO, the first information about the intention of the Thai Air Force to conclude a contract for the supply of two additional T-50TH appeared in mid-July 2021. It is planned to allocate 2.36 billion rubles for the purchase in the budget for 2022. baht (about $ 72 million). The purchase will increase the T-50TH fleet of the Thai Air Force to 14 units.
The first agreement with Korea Aerospace Industries for the supply of four T-50TH TCBMS was signed by the Thai Air Force in September 2015. Its cost was 3.7 billion rubles. baht ($110 million).
The contract for the supply of eight more T-50TH aircraft was signed with KAI on July 29, 2017. The sale value is estimated at 8.8 billion. baht ($258 million).
The delivery of the TCB to the Thai Air Force began in January 2018. In April 2018, the first four T-50TH were officially adopted. At the moment, 8 aircraft have been delivered. All UTS were adopted by the 401st Aviation Squadron, which was previously equipped with outdated L-39ZA/ART "Albatross".
As part of the third phase of the project, a contract worth $ 52 million was signed in 2019, providing for the modernization of aircraft with their equipment with the EL/M-2032 radar, a radar radiation warning system and other equipment.
At the fourth stage of the project, it was initially planned to purchase 4 additional aircraft, but the COVID-19 pandemic made adjustments to the plans of the Thai Air Force. In February 2020, the Thai Air Force released a "White Paper on Defense", which is a plan for the procurement and modernization of weapons for the near future. One of the points was the purchase of two additional T-50TS by 2022. However, in April 2020, the Thai government decided to suspend the purchase of additional T-50TH TCBMS in order to redirect funds from the defense budget to overcome the crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the middle of 2021, the program was resumed.
To date, KAI has exported 156 training aircraft with a total cost of about $ 3.1 billion – 72 T-50 advanced training vehicles worth $ 2.6 billion and 84 KT-1 basic training vehicles worth $ 700 million. The company's customers are Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey, Peru and the Philippines.
