To fulfil its dream of acquiring subs – often dubbed “national defence capabilities” – the Navy must effectively deal with questions that arise from critics.

During this time of economic distress, is it vital to the country’s strategic needs to have subs with a massive price tag – or is it wiser for the country to spend money on boosting the economy and more urgent priorities?

Capt Wachiraporn Wongnakhonsawang, director of Academic Affairs of the Naval Education Department, believes the country needs weapons systems in all three dimensions – water, land and air – to augment national defence capabilities. The country has lacked a sub for the last 63 years.

In 1994, the Banharn Silapa-archa government gave the nod to procure two diesel-electric submarines for Bt1.7 billion. They were Gotland-class submarines of the Swedish Navy, designed and to be built by the Kockums shipyard in Sweden. But that deal was scrapped due to allegations about its alleged lack of transparency.

Seven years later, the Thaksin Shinawatra government rejected a similar proposal despite economic recovery earlier this decade. Thaksingovernments from 2001-06 kept defence spending down.

The Abhisit Vejjajiva government also disapproved of the proposed procurement of two German decommissioned 500-tonne Type 206A diesel-electric attack submarines from Germany for Bt7.5 billion.

Recently, the Prayut Chan-o-cha Cabinet put on hold a plan by the Navy to buy three subs for Bt36 billion from China due to opposition from the public and some officials in the Navy who have more confidence in subs and sub maintenance systems from Europe. A Navy committee resolved to push for the deal in July last year. But it has been deferred pending further study on how suitable and cost-effective the submarines are.

Wachiraporn said the Navy did not have a fixed plan to purchase only Chinese subs. It is now scrutinising prospective subs from South Korea, France, Russia, Sweden and Germany.

“Sometimes there are enough funds – but the government and the Navy have different opinions. The government may have close ties with certain countries but the Navy feels the specifications do not match their demands. When this happens, the plan will not get going,” he said.

He believed one reason the Navy had not received the green light to procure subs was bad timing. On most occasions, the Navy sought approval for a purchase plan when the country faced an economic downturn. The Navy knows that it has not prepared adequate public relations campaigns to educate Thais on why the country needs to buy subs in order to get their support for purchase plans, Wachiraporn said.

It needs more than a big budget to fund the purchase. Having submarines would require extensive training, maintenance facilities and close cooperation between China and Thailand to prepare the Navy to employ and maintain weapons systems.

Wachiraporn said although the Navy had previously owned submarines, they were decommissioned and there was no division in the Navy with qualified and trained personnel to maintain and service subs.

Apart from publicity campaigns, the Navy may also need to put any purchase of subs through public hearings, as it would involve substantial funding.

Although the National Strategy for Maritime Security Plan 2015-2021 indicated the country’s maritime interests amount to some Bt17 trillion, Wachiraporn said the Navy wanted to clarify that the figure had actually reached Bt24 trillion. He said the Navy arrived at the latter sum after it included maritime insurance business, ship assembly businesses, and national gas resources the government has yet to negotiate with Cambodia for joint exploration and usage, plus the Dawei project signed with Myanmar and Japan.

The naval official said the government should not rule out buying subs on grounds that Thailand has not experienced a maritime invasion – or conflict with neighbouring countries -for many decades. Reasons cited earlier for Thailand acquiring submarines included keeping up with neighbours’ arms modernisation, as four countries in Asean have submarine fleets – Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Wachiraporn did not foresee major wars with neighbours in the near future, but he said that over coming decades the country would need capabilities to prevent new threats – the possibility of terrorism involving major piers and ports, or pirates robbing ships in or near Thai waters. There were also threats posed by human trafficking carried out at sea; and highly destructive threats such as nuclear, chemical and bio-weapons, Wachiraporn said.

Submarines are prized for their stealth and capacity to surprise. They are secret weapons that countries buy to lift their bargaining power with rival nations and also used for intelligence work.

During the Cold War, the world’s most powerful men after the US and Russian presidents, were Navy commanders who had the authority to fire missiles, the Navy man noted.