07 Oct 15. Thai submarine programme under review, but Chinese procurement uncertain. Thailand’s defence minister General Prawit Wongsuwan has reiterated the Thai government’s intention to procure submarines, although a previously stated commitment to procure the boats from China appears to have been abandoned. In comments reported on 7 October by the National News Bureau of Thailand, Gen Prawit said that the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) maintained a requirement to procure submarines in order to “protect Thailand’s natural resources”. He added that the RTN is “currently examining details of specifications and prices for the submarines” before relaunching a potential bid to procure boats with funds sourced from military expenditures over the next few years. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
07 Oct 15. Poland to launch attack helicopter talks with bidders. The Polish defence ministry will soon start the next phase of technical dialogue with combat helicopter manufacturers under its Project “Kruk”, which seeks replacements for its Mil Mi-24 fleet.
In September, the nation’s armament inspectorate sent an additional request for information, linked to technical data, to the four companies involved in the process: Airbus Helicopters (Tiger), Bell (AH-1Z), Boeing (AH-64E) and Turkish Aerospace Industries (T129).
Talks are planned to begin on 26 October, and will last one week per company before concluding on 26 November. Based on the information provided by industry during this process, the inspectorate should be able to determine the precise price and number of attack helicopters to be acquired.
According to its initial plans, Warsaw is looking to acquire between 16 and 32 new rotorcraft: enough to equip two squadrons. It could also look to buy only an initial batch, depending on its available budget, and include others as options.
Supporting documentation from the bidders should be ready by the end of March 2016, by which time the tender process should also be determined. This could potentially mandate the acquisition of helicopters via the US government’s Foreign Military Sales mechanism.
An agreement should be signed with one of the bidders during the third or fourth quarter of 2017, followed by deliveries to the Polish Land Forces’ aviation command in 2019.
Meanwhile, the armament inspectorate has revealed the price of the Polish military’s programme to acquire 50 Airbus Helicopters H225M Caracal multirole helicopters as just over PLN13.3bn ($3.5bn). Some 40% of this sum will be for the cost of training and a logistics support package. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Flight Global)
08 Oct 15. Spanish Cabinet approves contract for F110 frigate definition phase. The Spanish Cabinet has approved the definition phase contract for the F110 frigate with an estimated value of €19.79m.
The new development will allow Navantia to offer technical assistance in the preparation of the technical, management and economic documentation, needed to define the ship. In addition, it will support the directorate general of armament and materiél to draft the feasibility document and the design specifications.
Scheduled to be completed on 15 December 2017, the proposed procedure for this research and development contract will be an execution order under the convention between Navantia and the Spanish Ministry of Defence (MoD).
“The new Spanish F-110 frigate will integrate advanced weapons systems that support operational and strategic missions for defence and security.”
The new Spanish F-110 frigate will integrate advanced weapons systems that support operational and strategic missions for defence and security.
The F-110 frigate project is expected to run for ten years from initial definition to the construction of the first vessel. The new vessels will have an estimated operating life of 35 years. The financial support for this programme is delivered with special weapons programmes through the Ministry of Industry and Energy. The MoD will provide the fu