WASSANA NANUAM
The army is making bomb-disposal robots and buying armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from Ukraine to protect its troops in the far South.
Montree Sangkhasap, the chief of staff, said 10 pilot robots would be built in collaboration with King Mongkut?s Institute of Technology North Bangkok, where students have just won the 2007 World Robocup Rescue Championship in Atlanta, Georgia.
The 10 robots, costing more than one million baht each, will be sent to the troubled southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.
If they prove effective more will be built, said Gen Montree, who is also secretarygeneral of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc).
He said the army would also build more unmanned aerial vehicles for use in the far South.
Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, army commander-in-chief and chairman of the Council for National Security, said the army would order 96 armoured personnel carriers at a cost of four billion baht from Ukraine.
Some vehicles would be stationed at the Second Infantry Division in Saraburi province and the rest would be deployed in the deep South.
Gen Sonthi said the choice was carefully considered. The Ukrainian model is within the army budget and spare parts are still being made in Ukraine.
The Defence Ministry would seal the procurement as a government-togovernment deal, he said.
Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas said last week that the army favoured the BTR-3E1 armoured vehicle, because it was the cheapest of the nine bidders. Gen Boonrawd said Canada, Russia and China had lobbied hard for the sale, but price was the deciding factor.
??The Canadian vehicles are excellent, but we would get only half of the 96 vehicles we will get from Ukraine. It?s like buying Japanese cars over European cars,?? he said.
In June the navy signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance with the US government to purchase two Sikorsky MH60S Nighthawk helicopters for an estimated price of $58 million (1.7 billion baht) inclusive of spares, support and training. The agreement specifies delivery in 2009, the online Defence Industry Daily reported.