Royal Thai Navy is Procuring Three S26T Submarines based on China's Yuan-class SSK

: Posted On Tuesday, 05 July 2016 09:25

Naval Industry News - China

Royal Thai Navy is Procuring Three S26T Submarines based on China's Yuan-class SSK

According to Xinhua, the official press agency of the People's Republic of China, Thai Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan confirmed on Friday that Thailand will buy three Chinese-built submarines for a combined price of one billion U.S. dollars. The Royal Thai Navy's proposal to procure the three S26T submarines from China has been put on hold since last year by the deputy premier who is concurrently defense minister.

PLAN's Type 039A Diesel Electric Submarine (SSK). The S26T is reportedly based on this type.

Now that Gen Prawit has given his nod, the navy will use its fiscal 2017 budget amounting to some 333 million U.S. dollars to buy the first Chinese sub next year with the two others to follow over the next few years. The deputy premier said the navy will only pay for the Chinese subs on instalment basis which will span a ten-year's time from next year.

The S26T is reportedly to be based on the Type 039A SSK of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) also refered as Yuan class. It is a fairly recent design first commissioned in 2008 with a displacement of 3,600 tons and a length of 75 meters. It may feature an air-independent propulsion (AIP) system as an auxiliary system to a regular diesel-electric power.