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Thai navy to build own offshore patrol boats

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Thai navy plans to build three Offshore Patrol Vessels to celebrate the Thai monarch's 90th birthday in the next few years.

Deputy navy chief-of-staff Vice Adm. Jumpol Lumpikanond confirmed on Thursday that the three OPVs will be built at the navy's Mahidol Adulyadej Naval Dockyard in Bangkok with a combined budget of some 138 million U.S. dollars and completion scheduled for 2018.

Construction of the 1,960-ton OPVs will primarily follow the type of HTMS Krabi, the lone Thai-built OPV which has been deployed since 2013, Jumpol said.

The new offshore patrol boats will be commissioned in 2018 as part of the celebrations for King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 90th birthday anniversary that year, he said.

HTMS Krabi, built at the Thai navy's dockyard under supervision of Britain's BAE Systems, has a 76-mm gun, a 30-mm gun, Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles and a helipad for a Super Lynx helicopter. Endit