HTMS Chakri Naruebet

[Mid]

Thailand has an aircraft carrier with no aircraft
Jeremy Bender
February 20, 2015

1.jpg
Thai aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet2.jpg
Thai aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet

Almost immediately, Thailand ran into budget constraints. The Chakri Naruebet was put to port for the better part of each month and in 2006 its associated air wing was withdrawn. The Harriers are now over 30 years old.

Thai aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet

Even while operational, the carrier has been outclassed by the larger vessels of India and China, not to mention the US's super carrier fleet pictured below. It's now the smallest functioning aircraft carrier in the world.

3.jpg
Thai Aircraft carrier Chakri Naruebet

The Chakri Naruebet was built to carry 9 Harrier aircraft and 14 helicopters, with a 605-person crew. Some of those planes are decades old, and the carrier reportedly doesn't have a functioning anti-aircraft defense system.

4.jpg
THai Aircraft carrier

Still, despite its shortcomings, the Chakri Naruebet has proved useful in humanitarian missions. The Diplomat notes that the carrier was used after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami as well as in rescue operations after flooding in Thailand in 2010 and 2011

5.jpg
Thai aircraft carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet

chron.com

[Panama Hat]

It's now the smallest functioning aircraft carrier in the world.

. . . with no planes.


This clusterfukc is really a good piece of symbolism for the country

[sabang]

^^ Couldn't help but notice- why so many ossifers, and so few sailors?

[Delayed]

Would not surprise me if all the ratings where below maning the pumps!

Talking about navies with aircraft carriers and no planes. The Brits are in the same field!

[Norton]

[peterplonker]

And AF with ancient F16's that keep falling out the sky, and then they want to piss off other nations, I were them I would be encouraging the delectable Ying luck to give Obama the Monica L treatment, the Junta and its acolytes need all the help they can get.

[Texpat]

It's an albatross. A psychological burden fed by an overinflated sense of self-importance. The Thai Navy could spend it's resources in far better ways.

I'm reminded of the guy who lives in a veritable shack in town. He bought a new pickup truck a few years ago. Couldn't drive it because he couldn't afford the fuel. After the intro insurance expired, he never renewed it. So it became unregistered. It was repossessed after a year and a half -- almost never leaving street in front of his shack.

But at least he had one. Appearances are everything.

[Voɔɒlnɘɒl]

Jeremy Bender? One of the advantages of being young is that you can discover things that everyone else knows. Thus publishing the "bleeding obvious"

[Mid]

Naval Air: A Carrier Too Far

[troy]

I can see the Thais needed that carrier for protecting its colonies in distant waters...


... an oversized patrol boat that is useful for obsolete harriers and (too expensive) JSFs.

Awaiting another disaster to come?

[CHEEKYFOKKER]

Would not surprise me if all the ratings where below maning the pumps!

Talking about navies with aircraft carriers and no planes. The Brits are in the same field!

Very few global super powers are capable of fielding an expensive Carrier force at sea except the good ol' USA of course.

How many does poor old Canada have?

[sabang]

Ready and waiting- they already posses a submarine base with no submarines.
Really, I think it is well overdue for the Kingdom of Thailand to go nuclear.