The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) will have to forfeit a $74.5 million deposit on eight new Boeing F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters under a buyback deal struck with the US Government, after a last ditch effort to sell the fighters to Kuwait proved fruitless.
Washington had given Bangkok until 1 May to find a third-party buyer for the four F/A-18Cs and four tandem-seat Ds, or accept its offer to take over responsibility for the fighters. The deadline was driven by the need to request supplementary funding from the US Congress to acquire the aircraft.
The US Congress has now approved supplemental funding to enable the US Marine Corps to buy the eight aircraft originally ordered by Thailand. An additional $272.5 million will be provided to buy the F/A-18s, which are already in production at Boeing and are to be delivered in 1999.
The RTAF had originally agreed to pay $392 million for the F/A-18s, but had only made one initial payment of $74.5 million when the Thai economy crashed. This downpayment will not now be refunded to Thailand.
"We've tried to limit Thailand's liability to $74.5 million," confirms a US official. Under the original contract, the RTAF owed a further $250 million in cancellation penalties, but had been hoping for its deposit back to fund other aircraft programmes, such as a Northrop F-5E/F upgrade. The RTAF is still hoping to recoup some of its outlay from the sale of long-lead spares already purchased. There is some latitude, but the amount has still to be determined," adds the US source.
Thailand had been pinning last- minutes hopes on getting all of its money back by selling the aircraft to Kuwait, after the country's earlier overtures to Chile and the Philippines had failed.
Source: Flight International
