Citing their ageing fleet and a need to beef up Thailand’s national defence, the Royal Thai Air Force is seeking to buy 8 F-35 stealth jets. The jets, made in the US by Lockheed Martin, are considered to be the most advanced combat aircraft in the world. The price tag? About 21.78 billion baht.
Currently, the air force is flying around in F-5 and F-16 jets – technology from last century as the planes are over 30 years old. Much like humans, planes of a certain age start to require mounting maintenance costs and can pose a safety risk as they deteriorate.
And the air force argues that now is the time to purchase, as prices have dropped since the F-35 first came out and planes can be picked up from Lockheed Martin for about US $82 million, a discount of 42% of their original list price of US $142 million. At 2.7 billion baht each, 8 planes would set Thailand back nearly 22…
