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.