HTMS ''Taksin'' (FFG-422) (), hull number 622, 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 so ...
, designed and built by the
China State Shipbuilding Corporation in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
. Her sister ship,
HTMS ''Naresuan'' 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 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 announced that it was awarded a contract for the upgrading of the two Naresuan class frigates. The scope of the upgrade will include 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 Erieye 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 ...
missile and associated equipment to upgrade the frigates. A letter of offer and acceptance was signed with Raytheon on 14 January 2013.
During a network centric exercise of the
Royal Thai Navy 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 HTMS ''Taksin'',
HTMS ''Naresuan'' and
HTMS ''Chakri Naruebet'' for the first time.
References
Ships built in China
Naresuan-class frigates
1995 ships
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