Torpedo the sub plan

I think I have a permanent pain in the neck from years of shaking my head over the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) and its quest for submarines. As a military man I am familiar with high-ranking officers and their obsession for certain equipment, an obsession often not matching real mission requirements. The RTN is out to purchase Chinese Type 041 submarines. The Type 041 is a diesel electric sub, about 254 feet long, about 3,600 tonnes, and has a normal crew of 38. The armament is six torpedo tubes firing torpedoes, and possibly anti-ship missiles.

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam all have submarines on hand or on order. This is quite justified as all three have to contend with Chinese incursions into their territorial waters in the South China Sea. Thailand has no such problem and faces no territorial threats from countries bordering the Gulf of Thailand, or in the Andaman Sea.

As I see it the RTN mission mainly consists of surveillance of territorial waters for: Protection of Thai sovereignty, piracy, smuggling, human trafficking, illegal fishing, and protection of Thai natural resources. There are probably others, but these should be the main missions.

So, I ask you how will these missions be carried out using submarines? Will they fire torpedoes at the type of vessels used by those engaged in the aforementioned. Also, the maximum speed of the Type 041 is around 20 knots, or 37kph.

A jet-ski could easily outrun the sub. The sub has no auxiliary craft to use in pursuit as the “bad guys” often shift cargo to small high-speed craft when being pursued.

Now let’s consider surface patrol craft. There are many good ones available, but for the sake of discussion let’s consider the Israeli Super Dvora Mark III class. Here is a fast patrol vessel of 60 tonnes, 27 metres in length, and with a speed of 45-50 knots (83-93kph). This ship can be configured in various ways but comes with a variety of 25-30mm cannon, machine guns, and even missiles. It also has a radar system for detecting surface and airborne objects. Auxiliary craft can be accommodated on a variety of patrol craft.

So I ask you, if you were to defend Thailand from the “bad guys” as noted above, what type of ship would you want, a slow submersible with torpedo tubes, or fast patrol craft with lots of firepower? It would seem to be a no-brainer. HC MCCAFFREY Bangkok