Thailand gets first carrier

Thailand gets first carrier

BANGKOK (DPA): Thai navy commander-in-chief, Adm. Vichit Chamnankarn, inspected yesterday the delivery of Southeast Asia's first aircraft carrier -- designed to accommodate Sea-Harrier planes and helicopters, Royal Thai Navy officials said.

The Spanish-made Chakrinaruebet carrier arrived at Phuket Island Navy base, 862 kilometers south of Bangkok, Sunday evening with nine U.S.-made Harrier aircraft on board.

Thailand paid 7,100 million baht (US$284 million at the 1992 exchange rate) to Spain under a government-to-government agreement signed more than five years ago.

Vichit conducted an official inspection of the carrier, the first to be used in the territorial waters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, prior to its final port of call at Sattahip Naval Base, on Aug. 10.