Su-30's for Thailand?

Thailand has traditionally purchased aircraft from US since Vietnam war era. Most recently, they received a batch of used F-16A's "donated" by Singapore AF, in exchange to using Thai air space for training. If this article is true, it'd be the first sale of Russian fighters to Thailand.

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he Russian media reported this morning that the Thai government has agreed to a secret $500 million deal to buy Russian fighter jets and helicopters for the Royal Thai Air Force.

The reports made no mention of the Thai government's claim at home that this is to be a barter deal. Premier Thaksin Shinawatra also has never mentioned helicopters before, although he confirmed there might be a deal to obtain the 12 Sukhol-30 fighter jets.

"This is good news for Russia, we haven't sold a single cartridge to Thailand," enthused Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies to the Moscow Times today.

"It also means that Russia has taken over the region - we have fighter jets in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and now Thailand."

The Moscow media report said the deal is preliminary and was signed last week in Kuala Lumpur when President Vladimir Putin and Mr Thaksin were both at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

It said Russia has signed a preliminary agreement to sell $500 million worth of military aircraft to Thailand, and added it was "the first such deal with the traditional US arms client."

"We signed a memorandum for 12 Sukhoi-30MKMs during President Vladimir Putin's visit [last week] to Malaysia," a senior official at Irkut, the privately controlled maker of the Sukhoi fighter, was quoted as saying.

Thailand originally agreed to buy the jets last year but put off the deal after a tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people hit the region last December, said the Moscow reports.

The Irkut executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of negotiations, said the memorandum of understanding also included delivery of helicopters to Thailand, according to Moscow reports.

"We have gone half the distance and expect to sign the contract in the first half of next year," said Alexei Fyodorov, Irkut board chairman.

Makiyenko estimated that the deal would bring Russia at least $500 million. Rosoboronexport, the state arms sales agency, was not available for comment to the Russian media.

I do remember reading somewhere that Thailand was ready to pay with chickens. lol. That would be quite hilarious. Seriously though, you can't help but wonder if some of the relief money went into this.

they are also buying thales frigates with RICE!!!!:roll:

anyways thai should offer service insted of chicken or rice

REMENBER THE BIGEST SERVICE INDUSTRY IN THAILAND


PS dont think the russian will accept chickens will the bird flu going on

is this su-30 going to custom made, like the mkk or mki, or is it going to be a basic mk? im guessing these su-30s are going to be ground based, not operating of the carrier?(that be a lot of riepower for the carrier, but the decks too short).

dont think the thai can afford a specialivzed one like the MKI

most likely the basic Su-30

darth sidious said:

dont think the thai can afford a specialivzed one like the MKI

most likely the basic Su-30

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Well, it said MKM, so I'm assuming it's the version that Malaysians got, so probably better than the MKKs.

the mkm is certainly better in some ways to the mkk. i bellieve it has russian, french, and south african avionics. it has the tvc can canards too. but its not streghthened, so its probably only for air defence.

I'm curious on how the strength of whatever area of an aircraft can make it capable of only air defense?

I'd expect an aircraft that has a role of air defense to have an aircraft capable of withstaining a lot of stress, especially since their targets are enemy aircraft, which would definitely take more energy and maneuverability to destroy than say, anti-ship? (That is assuming BVR doesn't work perfectly, and their targets wouldn't be huge lumbering bombers)

Before you guys run off bashing barter goods =p Rember the first Su-27's imported by PRC was partially paid for by barter goods too. I think Malaysia paid for their Su-30's partially with palm oil exports?

Both Thailand and Malaysia have annual military budgets of only ~$1.7 billion USD. A $500 million purchase represents a whopping 30% of the entire annual military budget. Also, Thailand has to maintain its ground forces deployed across troublesome border regions.

Malaysia's purchase of 18 Su-30 MKM's was reported to cost RM 3.4 billion. The exchange rate at the time was RM 3.8 : 1 USD, so that's like almost $900 million dollars, or over 50% of their annual military budget!

As for the capabilities of these Su-30's, they probably benefit from the Su-30MKI development for India. Since Malaysia is a Muslim country, there were some talk about Malaysian demands to remove/replace Israeli components. Thailand doesn't have such reservations so their aircraft may look closer to what the Indian AF is using.

The_Zergling said:

I'm curious on how the strength of whatever area of an aircraft can make it capable of only air defense?

I'd expect an aircraft that has a role of air defense to have an aircraft capable of withstaining a lot of stress, especially since their targets are enemy aircraft, which would definitely take more energy and maneuverability to destroy than say, anti-ship? (That is assuming BVR doesn't work perfectly, and their targets wouldn't be huge lumbering bombers)

Click to expand...

streghthening airframes is done almost always to carrier or ground attack points, so they can hold more munitions, the hardpoints may also be strenghthend to handle more g's. its not like the fighter will fall apart in midair if its not streghthened...its made of titanium for god sake.!