| Royal Thai Air Force to buy 6 Gripens
Thai air force to equip by Swedish jet fighters
21:19, October 17, 2007
The Royal Thai Air Force has decided to buy a squadron of six Gripen jet fighters from Sweden for 19 billion baht (about 570 million U.S. dollars) from annual budgets spanning 2008 until 2012, the official Thai News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Air force chief Chalit Phukbasuk was quoted as saying that the Gripen-JAS-39 C/D fighter is a multi-role combat aircraft which the air force has planned to replace the U.S.-made F-5E fighters scheduled for decommissioning in 2011.
The Swedish-made combat aircraft, which has won the air force’s nod over the U.S.-made F-16 Fighting Falcon and Russian-made Su-30 fighters will be equipped with state-of-the-art navigational and missile systems.
Chalit said the multi-role Gripen fighters, scheduled to be deployed in a combat ready status for a 20-year period, will help bolster the air force's air defense capabilities and may join combat missions alongside other tactical defense units.
Source: Xinhua
__________________ "I had ten rockets on board, and as I wasn't particularly fond of head-on attacks, I salvoed the whole lot at him. The rockets didn't hit him but but they must have scared the bejesus out of him, for he did a steep turn to starboard... I let him have the full blast, all eight fifty-calibers. I had never seen an aircraft completely disintegrate in the air the way this Me-110 did..."
Bill Dunn, 406th Fighter Group 
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