The United States Department of Defense has unofficially declined Thailand’s bid to buy F-35 fighter jets and instead offered F-16 Block 70 and F-15 E Strike Eagle fighter jets, a Royal Thai Air Force source said.
The source said the Pentagon’s message was conveyed by Robert F Gordec, the US ambassador to Thailand, when he called on ACM Alongkorn Wannarot, the air force commander-in-chief, at the RTAF headquarters at Don Muang two weeks ago.
The ambassador said the US Department of State is of the opinion that the Thai air force may not yet be ready in terms of infrastructure facilities for the F-35s, especially airbase security, airfields, maintenance, pilots and other personnel.
It would take a lot of time and a significant budget to be fully ready, he said.
The US did not reject outright Thailand’s request to buy F-35s but would reconsider it when the RTAF is ready, probably in the next five to ten years. It had instead offered to sell F-16 Block 70 and F-15 E Strike Eagle fighters to Thailand, the source said.
The US is due to give an official reply to the RTAF’s F-35 acquisition bid in July. When the request is officially turned down, the air force would have to return 369.1 million baht or an advance payment of 5% approved by the House of Representatives to the state.
According to the source, the RTAF is still considering buying another fleet of Gripen fighter jets from Sweden’s Saab AB. The air force had earlier bought a fleet of 12 Gripen fighters which had been based at Wing 7 in Surat Thani but lost one of them in a crash.
On Jan 11, the cabinet approved the RTAF’s plan to purchase four US fighter jets starting in the next fiscal year this October with a budget of 13.8 billion baht.