Thailand Mulls Buying 12 Russian Mi-17V5 Helicopters To Replace American CH-47 Chinooks

Thailand plans to purchase Mi-17V5 helicopters from Russia for the army for disaster mitigation and troop deployment.

The purchase of the Russian military transport helicopters is needed as the army lacks planes to replace the American CH-47 Chinook, a supply transport aircraft, Army commander-in-chief Teerachai Nakwanich was quoted as saying by Bangkokpost Tuesday.

Gen Teerachai said the army did not have the money to procure new aircraft carriers. Therefore, the lowest purchase budget was requested from the government.

The army proposed to buy a total of 12 helicopters and is awaiting approval from the cabinet, which will assess the size of the budget to be allocated for this purpose, the news daily quoted an unnamed source as saying.

Teerachai did not disclose the price of the Russian helicopters the price of the helicopters.