BANGKOK — The Royal Thai Army’s buying spree shows no signs of letting up with the disclosure Friday it has committed to spending another 2.2 billion baht on more military hardware from China.
According to it purchase orders published on the army’s ordnance department, the force will acquire three armored personnel carriers, 12 mobile artillery units, 10 maintenance vehicles, 12 armored command vehicles and three armored medical vehicles.
These vehicles will join the existing fleet of 39 APCs Thailand bought from China in 2017.
Read: Defense Ministry Defends New Lot of Chinese Tanks
The purchase will also include more than 18,000 rounds of artillery shells, rifle grenades and other “high explosive projectiles.” There’s one line item for an unspecified “simulator” costing 151 million baht. In total, the deal will cost about 2.25 billion baht, the document reads.
The revelation came just weeks after the army announced it would buy 14 more battle tanks from the People’s Republic, in addition to the current stock of 39 Chinese-made tanks.
In a visit to Beijing last month, army chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong said Thailand would work even more closely with the Chinese military throughout 2019.
