Home panel asked in order to rethink veto upon buy
The House committee scrutinising the 2023 budget bill will tomorrow consider whether to accept the Royal Thailänder Air Force (RTAF) appeal against a home sub-committee decision in order to chop its purchase of two F-35A fighter jets really worth 7. 38 billion baht from the government’s 2023 fiscal spending budget.
Yuttapong Charasathien, a Pheu Thai Party MP for Maha Sarakham in his capacity because deputy chairman of the sub-committee that produced the ruling, yesterday indicated the solar panel had not changed the mind.
The air force, at the same time, argues that timing is critical as it wants to avoid a backlog of orders stuck by its counterparts overseas. The sooner it may proceed, the better.
The subcommittee on durable item items, state enterprises, ICT equipment plus revolving funds attained an unanimous choice to exclude this request from the 2023 spending plan, Mr Yuttapong said.
He said the main reason was that Asia has incurred huge debts following the Covid-19 pandemic, so it may not be appropriate if additional loans were sought to buy the aircraft.
Mr Yuttapong furthermore said it will take up to 20 months for the US Congress to think about whether to accept the sale. In his view, the RTAF should wait till then before searching for funding, he stated.
The environment force can resubmit the request for allocations from the 2024 spending budget, Mr Yuttapong said.
Earlier, ACM Panpakdee Pattanakul, air force main of staff, said an appeal have been submitted to the leader of the sub-committee. The appeal would after that be forwarded towards the House panel scrutinising the bill, this individual said.
Only about 700 million baht is required in the 2023 coffers, as the rest will be carried over to later years until fiscal 2026, he or she said.
Although conscious of the need to revive the economic climate, the air force needs this initial amount to press the US into making a decision on the sale, with an estimate hoped for in January next year, he said.
RTAF commander ACM Napadej Dhupatemiya said recently the RTAF is only carrying out its duty under government plan on strengthening the air power in the interest of maintaining the country safe from threats, he mentioned.
The procurement plan is at the RTAF’s spending budget, ACM Napadej said before adding: “Don’t mix politics along with security issues as this will not benefit the country. ”
AVM Prapas Sonjaidee, RTAF spokesman, said there is a plan to decommission three fleets associated with fighter jets slowly which would leave just two in 2032.
The air force plans to procure a new fleet to replace the three decommissioned fleets to maintain the RTAF’s air combat capabilities for the next 40 years, AVM Prapas stated.
The RTAF needs to know the budget approved for the procurement first before continuing to discuss details of the particular purchase deal with the US.
But if the RTAF is not given allocations from the 2023 budget, the notice of offer and acceptance (LOA) with the US for the procurement cannot be arranged, he said.
If the RTAF expresses its wish to obtain F-35 fighter aircraft in 2024, it would have to join a growing production line waiting list which currently includes Nato users Germany, Greece and Czech Republic, which plan to order the aircraft between 2022 and 2023.
If the RTAF is slow in placing an purchase, it would inevitably drop behind these three countries, which in turn would certainly delay its intend to have the full fleet of F-35 aircraft replaced by 2034, AVM Prapas stated.