HTMS ''Naresuan'' (FFG-421) ( th, เรือหลวงนเรศวร), commissioned in 1995, is a modified version of the Chinese-made

Type 053 frigate The Type 053 is a family of Chinese frigates that served with the People's Liberation Army Navy Surface Force, and a small number of foreign navies. Nomenclature for Chinese warships was temporarily changed during the Cultural Revolution, and ...

, corporate designed between

Royal Thai Navy The Royal Thai Navy ( Abrv: RTN, ทร.; th, กองทัพเรือไทย, ) is the naval warfare force of Thailand. Established in 1906, it was modernised by the Admiral Prince Abhakara Kiartiwongse (1880–1923) who is known a ...

and China but built by the

China State Shipbuilding Corporation The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is a Chinese shipbuilding conglomerate. Description CSSC is one of the top 10 defence groups in China. It consists of various shipyards, equipment manufacturers, research institutes and shipbu ...

in Shanghai. Her sister ship, was delivered in November 1995. The ships came at 2 billion baht each, less than the 8 billion baht claimed price tag for Western-built frigates. The Royal Thai Navy complained of the poor quality of the ships. The ship's damage control system was very limited, with very basic fire suppression systems. It was claimed that if the ship's hull was breached, the ship would be quickly lost to flooding. The Thai Navy had to spend considerable time and effort to correct some of these issues.

Upgrade

On 3 June 2011,

Saab Saab or SAAB may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Saab Group, a Swedish aerospace and defence company, formerly known as SAAB, and later as Saab AB ** Datasaab, a former computer company, started as spin off from Saab AB * Saab Automobile, a fo ...

announced that it was awarded a contract for the upgrading of the two ''Naresuan''-class frigates. The scope of the upgrade included Saab's 9LV MK4 combat management system, Sea Giraffe AMB, CEROS 200 fire control radar, EOS 500 electro-optics system and data link systems for communications with the newly acquired

Royal Thai Air Force "Royal Thai Air Force March" , mascot = , anniversaries = 9 April 1937 (Royal Thai Air Force Day) , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles ...

Erieye The Erieye radar system is an Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) developed by Saab Electronic Defence Systems (formerly Ericsson Microwave Systems) of Sweden. It uses active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology. The Er ...

surveillance aircraft. On 8 August 2012, DSCA announced Thailand's intention to acquire the

Evolved Sea Sparrow The RIM-162 Evolved SeaSparrow Missile (ESSM) is a development of the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile used to protect ships from attacking missiles and aircraft. ESSM is designed to counter supersonic maneuvering anti-ship missiles. ESSM also has the ab ...

(ESSM) missile and associated equipment to upgrade the frigates and a Letter of Offer and Acceptance was signed with Raytheon on 14 January 2013.

Service history

On 30 August 2015, the ESSM was fired from ''Naresuan'' during Exercise CARAT 2015. During a network centric exercise of the

in March 2021 networked data links was established between

Gripen The Saab JAS 39 Gripen (; English: ''griffin'') is a light single-engine multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB. The Gripen has a delta wing and canard configuration with relaxed stabilit ...

fighters and ''Naresuan'', and for the first time. On 23 May 2022, ''Naresuan'', , a Type 053HT frigate, and , a sister ship to ''Bangpakong'', participated in the 28th Annual CARAT exercise with the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

7th Fleet The Seventh Fleet is a numbered fleet of the United States Navy. It is headquartered at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. It is part of the United States Pacific Fleet. At present, it is the largest of ...

References

Ships built in China Naresuan-class frigates 1993 ships {{Thailand-stub