Thailand's Navy needs to get ship-shape

Fortunately, Malaysia’s MH370 and South Korea’s Saewol incidents occurred outside Thai territorial waters. Otherwise, the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) would have been exposed to the core – that they did not have the capacity or capability to carry out the search and rescue in the middle of two oceans, let alone perform the much more sophisticated underwater operations. Their ability for search and rescue is extremely limited, subject to coastal areas and inland waterways. They have a small group of divers.

Before putting the horse before the cart – in this case the desire to purchase three powerful submarines, it is important to understand the real geo-strategic circumstances Thailand is facing to protect its maritime sovereignty and interests.

The current debate on the price, the home of the builder and the engineering configuration have not helped Thais to understand why their country needs to have submarines.

Indeed, Thailand was the first Southeast Asian country to run submarines. It was during the reign of Rama VI, of King Vajiravudh, that the plans to acquire six submarines were discussed. It would take another two decades, in 1930, before four Japanese-made submarines were delivered to Thailand and used during the Indochina War and World War II. The role of the almighty Thai Navy was completely decapitated followed Japan’s defeat during WWII and the aftermath of the infamous Manhattan coup of 1951. The submarines were decommissioned and relegated to history.

Since then, the Navy has been playing third fiddle, following the Army and the Air Force. There was a brief moment of glory when Thailand acquired an aircraft carrier in 1997, Chakri Naruebet, which until today still has not been put into full use. In fact, it has become a butt of jokes about “an aircraft carrier without any aircraft.”

The Thai Navy’s historical mishaps, coupled with an inability to manage and operate the region’s first aircraft carrier, the rough-handling of people-in-distress at sea and long lists of alleged malfeasance, do not augur well for their ongoing efforts to modernise their maritime defence capacity. A better communication strategy was badly needed.

Since January 1997, after the establishment of the Thai Maritime Enforcement Coordinating Centre-Thai-MECC – the centre has been the main mechanism to coordinate well over 30 agencies to deal with whatever challenges arise at sea. It has become cumbersome and ineffective as part of the Thai-MECC efforts to eradicate illegal fishing, modern slave labour and human smuggling, have demonstrated.

Under the Prayut government, the Thai-MECC has been revamped and better-equipped with new mandates and equipment – to the same level of Internal Security Operations Command to take up maritime challenges.

The Navy’s role was brought to the fore due to the increased incidents at sea in past years, in both the Indian and Pacific Oceans, involving transnational crimes including piracy, human trafficking, thefts and burglaries. Several unreported incidents of piracy and siphoning thefts of fuel occurred in the past three years in the Gulf of Thailand that highlighted the Navy’s failure to prevent a recurrence of these incidents.

But it was the Rohingya boatpeople crisis that drew the Thai Navy most forcefully to the public’s attention. First of all, it was their lawsuit against the [crusading web site] Phuket Wan’s allegation that some of their officials benefited from human trafficking. Secondly, it was the influx of Muslims from Bangladesh and Myanmar during the first weeks of this year. For the time being, the boatpeople’s arrivals have temporarily died down due to the monsoon season and tighter patrols.

But what made the headlines in past weeks was a different story altogether. The planned purchase of three submarines from China worth Bt36 billion was the bone of contention. For nearly seven decades after the acquisition of Japanese-made submarines in the 1930s, the Thai Navy has been clamouring for new submarines to protect the country’s vast maritime areas. The Andaman Sea is an important sea lane of communication that passes through the Straits of Malacca, leading to the South China Sea.

Thailand has 3,219 kilometres of coastline [the World Factbook] – while the Gulf of Thailand has 1,972 kilometres of coastline – with a total maritime territory of 320,00 square kilometres.

Last month, the 17-member scrutinising committee agreed unanimously to go for the Chinese-made submarines. The Navy thought that this time, with the strong consensus of all armed forces, a quick decision to buy could be made without hassles as in the past. One big contributing factor that necessitates the submarine’s acquisition has been the new six-year national maritime security plan, which has been incorporated with the 13th National Economic and Social Development Plan (2014-2019). The estimated value of Thailand’s maritime resources at Bt7.5 trillion annually – a bit inflated – has all but fired up the desire to protect this key national interest. 

The planned acquisition is part of the government’s ongoing efforts to ensure efficient policy implementations under the slogan “Secured Country, Prosperous People”. The strategies include seven action plans that would improve the navy’s maritime connectivity and capacity building, infrastructure and equipment upgrading, seafarers’ training, protecting the marine environment, promoting eco-tourism and the fishery regime in Thailand.

All things considered, Thailand needs to upgrade its maritime defence capacity. In the coming years, the old and emerging maritime powers could make the Indo-Pacific maritime zone an active playground. The country also must be ready to engage with other Asean members in planning and joint operations. Under the Asean Political-Security Community, maritime security cooperation is one of the priority areas as part of the Asean Community’s building efforts to promote peace and stability in the region.