Military enthusiasts who often browse the Internet may have a deep impression of Thailand’s somewhat funny and unique "lottery" conscription activities. But what is the equipment and combat effectiveness of the army of this country that believes in Theravada Buddhism? How to carry out national defense education for citizens and young people in normal times? With these questions, the author came to Don Muang Air Force Base in Bangkok on January 13, 2024 to find out. This is also the headquarters of the Royal Thai Air Force.
National defense education activities mainly for young people
2024 is the year 2567 of the Thai calendar. According to the Thai calendar, the second Saturday of this month is Children’s Day. In order to show the national defense strength and carry out national defense education to the majority of young people, the Thai army held a military camp open day as usual, and the three military bases of the army, navy and air force were open to the public free of charge. Among them, the Air Force opened 15 bases. Each base arranged a static display of military aircraft, a military aircraft flying show and a military-civilian interactive program. The largest display was the Wing6 base in Don Muang.
, each base has arranged static displays of military aircraft, military aircraft flight performances and military-civilian interactive programs. The largest display is the one located at the Don Muang Wing 6 base.
At 7:30 local time, the Wing6 base, which is usually a restricted area for the public, opened its doors. Local children’s music was played at the door, some children’s amusement facilities also appeared in the base, and various snack stalls were opened in place. The whole base was immersed in a joyful atmosphere. When people entered the venue, the staff would distribute the program of the event at the door. The overall atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.
For this event, Don Muang Base has three activity areas, Area 1: The Royal Air Force Museum on the east side of the Air Force Base, where a Children’s Day performance stage and a special snack street were built in the outdoor exhibition area; Area 2: A large hangar in the static display area: Area 3: Static display area for military equipment. The author quickly found the base activity pick-up point, and after the first security check, took the shuttle bus to areas 2 and 3 of the activity site. The large hangar in area 2 is mainly an area for Thai military and civilian interaction. On that day, the commander of the Royal Thai Air Force visited here to interact with the public, and it is also a place to buy souvenirs. Area 3 is an equipment static display area, including ground weapons and equipment of the Air Force Special Operations Team and Air Force aircraft in the parking area. The ground equipment includes wheeled 4x4 armored vehicles equipped with M60 machine guns, China’s domestically produced foreign trade version of QFJ-2 portable air defense missiles, Swedish R BS-70 multi-purpose missiles, M16A2, M16A2/M203, M4A1, Glock-19, FN high-powered pistols and other light weapons. Most of these individual weapons can be played with, and the soldiers are also very friendly and can teach hand-in-hand, which is very open.
Air Force equipment display
The main equipment of the Air Force is of course military aircraft. This static display adopts a centralized display of the same type of aircraft, which can be divided into fixed-wing transport aircraft, helicopters, fixed-wing supersonic fighters, advanced trainers, attack aircraft, primary trainers, retired classic fighters and passenger aircraft used by the royal family. The specific models are as follows:
Fixed-wing transport aircraft: BT-67 (C-47 equipped with new engines), US-made C-130H, ATR-72-500 jointly developed by France and Italy, Swedish Sabb340AEW, etc.;
Helicopters: Eurocopter EC-725AP, Black Hawk UH-60;
Fighters: Swedish Saab JAS-39D, US-made F-16B Block15 OCU, American F-5ETH;
Advanced trainer: Korean T-50TH, French "Alpha" JET trainer (second-hand from Germany),
Attack aircraft: AU-23A; Primary trainer: T-6C/PC-9, DA-42, DA40-NG, CT-4A/B;
Retired classic fighters: American North American T-33 trainer, American North American T-28D Cold Spiral Award trainer, American Grumman F8F-1B fighter, American P-36/Curtiss 75 fighter;
The 4-engine Airbus A340 used by the Thai royal family.
A total of more than 20 aircraft, the scene is still quite spectacular.
The number of exhibits on the ground is small but the content is rich. Among them, the P-36/Curtiss 75 fighter is very rare. The same type of fighter has served in China and fought against the Japanese army in the battlefield of the Anti-Japanese War, which is awe-inspiring. As a leader of piston fighters, the Grumman F8F participated in the Korean War, and the heroic Volunteer Air Force once fought against it. As a continuation of the classic C-47, the BT-67 also showed the world the powerful vitality of aircraft.
In this event, two fighters at the Don Muang base performed a full-field flight display, F-16BBlock15 OCU has been equipped with a new F100-PW-200E engine and AN/APG-66(V) fire control radar, which has a certain beyond-visual-range air combat capability. Currently, the Royal Thai Air Force has about 50 F-16s, which are the mainstay of fighter jets, but these fighter jets are generally old and are expected to be retired from 2025. It can be seen from on-site observation that the cabin cover has aged and yellowed, and the paint color of the exterior has also become lighter, but the whole machine is in good condition. The roar of the F100-PW-200E engine also resounded through the sky, showing the charm of the high-thrust engine. During the flight display, a pass along the airport runway was made and a flyer circled from the entrance direction to the airport runway and then a pass flight was made. Although there was no maneuvering display, it is also possible to imagine the advantages of fighter jets with an advantageous thrust-to-weight ratio in low-altitude horizontal maneuvers. Another model used as a flight display was the AU-23 high-wing propeller attack aircraft, which adopted a three-aircraft formation to fly through the field with smoke. Such flight demonstrations, twice a day, are very short, and are a great test of the shooting ability of aviation photography enthusiasts on site.
As the rare Swedish JAS-39 "Gripen" fighter and French "Alpha" trainer aircraft in Asia, they only made static displays this time. Fortunately, after 2 pm, the display aircraft left the venue one after another, giving aviation photography enthusiasts the opportunity to shoot, especially the Gripen did a pass-through flight after leaving the venue, showing its majestic appearance in the air. As a single-engine multi-purpose fighter with a canard + delta wing layout in the new century, the Gripen fighter enjoys the reputation of the "Three Musketeers" in Europe. It is equipped with a Volvo RM12 turbofan engine (an improved version of the American General F404J), can take off within 500 meters, and climb to an altitude of 10,000 meters within two minutes. Its Ericsson P5-05/A multi-mode pulse Doppler radar can theoretically detect targets of the size of a typical fighter up to 120 kilometers, supports the use of 4 AIM-120 air-to-air missiles, and can scan a range of 40x40 kilometers in ground mode. Its data link system supports 4 fighters to send data at the same time, has a relatively complete electronic warfare/interference equipment EWS system, and has a Mauser BK-27 27mm cannon for self-defense. In terms of air-to-surface combat, the Gripen has a total of 8 racks and can be loaded with uncontrolled bombs, guided bombs, air-to-surface missiles and anti-ship missiles. Precision-guided weapons mainly include Maverick missiles, DWS39 submunitions, Paveway series laser-guided bombs, and the ability to launch German-made Taurus stealth long-range air-to-ground missiles. During the exercise, 4 Gripen dropped 16 500-pound 227-kilogram GBU-12 close air support operations, demonstrating a strong ground attack capability. Compared with other multi-purpose fighters, the Gripen has excellent anti-ship capabilities and can carry Sweden’s RBS-15 Mk.3, which has a range of about 200 kilometers and a powerful warhead and can attack large surface ships. The Gripen fighter has excellent performance and is very suitable for the needs of the Thai Air Force, but the unit price of $85 million per aircraft has also led to the Thai side purchasing only 11 aircraft to be used in conjunction with the Saab340 Erieye early warning aircraft.
Time is always short. At 2 pm local time on the 13th, the organizer announced the end of the event, and then the fighter planes gradually left the scene. Fortunately, aviation photography enthusiasts can still stay on the scene to shoot the fighter planes taking off. We watched the departure of the "Gripen", F-16, Alpha and T-50 while pressing the shutter to draw a perfect end to this event.
Travel suggestions
Don Muang Airport is located in the north of Bangkok. It is a dual-use airport for military and civil use. It is about an hour’s drive from Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is mainly responsible for passenger transportation (about 2 hours by subway). It is a dual-use airport for military and civil use, so there are not many domestic airlines that can fly directly to Don Muang Airport, mainly China Southern Airlines, Spring Airlines, Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion Air and other airlines. At the same time, Don Muang Airport is also the base of Thai Nok Air, which is the third airline established in Thailand. Thai Airways International owns 39% of the shares of Nok Air. It mainly flies domestic routes in Thailand centered on Bangkok. The ticket price is about 30% cheaper than Thai Airways. All aircraft models are painted with flying birds, and even the company’s logo is a bird pattern. It is a perfect combination of the two major photography themes of "shooting birds" and "shooting airplanes".
J. This trip to Thailand really made me feel that under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s influence in Southeast Asia is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to the long queues of Mixue Ice City, Grab, the largest online car-hailing and logistics platform in Southeast Asia invested by Chinese Internet companies, left a deep impression on the author. Download GraD APP directly from the mobile application store, then register and bind Alipay, and you can use online car-hailing and food delivery services smoothly in more than 400 cities in 8 countries in Southeast Asia. The software supports a full Chinese interface, and the chat dialog box with the driver can also automatically translate the Thai sent by the driver. Compared with waving a taxi on the roadside in Thailand 10 years ago, it is really convenient.
