The fleet of Royal Thai Army helicopter are consists of Bell AH-1F Huey Cobra Attack helicopter, Eurocopter Fennec AS550 C3 Light Attack helicopter, Sikorsky UH-60L/M Blackhawk (S-70A-43) Utility helicopter, AgustaWestland AW149 Utility helicopter, Bell UH-1H Iroquois Utility helicopter, Bell 212 Utility helicopter, Eurocopter UH-72A Lakota Utility helicopter, Eurocopter EC145 VIP transport helicopter, Mil Mi-17-V5 Transport helicopter and Boeing CH-47D Chinook Transport helicopter. There once was a plan to replace UH-1H “Huey” by 33 Black Hawk, but the budget crisis from 1997 Asian Financial Crisis forced RTA to cut the number into only 7. Based on the original requirement in 2006, there was a requirment for 9 utility helicopter, with the helicopter required the same standard with Black Hawk. The Royal Thai Armed Forces plan to replace outdated Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters produced in the United States with Russia’s Mi-17V5 helicopters. A military source said that the army proposed buying a total of 12 Mi-17V5 helicopters and is awaiting approval from the cabinet, which will assess the size of the budget to be allocated for this purpose.
