Most part of Thai military budget to cover repairs of decades-old weapons: deputy defense minister

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BANGKOK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's armed forces have planned to spend most part of their allocated budget on repairs and maintenance of decades-old weapon systems as opposed to buying newly-built ones, Deputy Defense Minister Chaicharn Changmongkol said on Friday.

During a marathon debate on the 2020 budget bill in parliament, Chaicharn confirmed most of the armed forces' budget, amounting to 233.35 billion baht (about 7.69 billion U.S. dollars), will be spent on the repairs and maintenance of weapon systems deployed since over the last four decades such as jet fighters, helicopters, tanks and armored infantry vehicles.

The defense official admitted that some newly-built weapon systems might be procured to replace those which can no longer be repaired. However, he said 58 percent of the Thai military weapon systems remains in poor condition beyond repair, and needs to be replaced with new ones sooner or later.

The 2020 budget for the armed forces accounts for 1.3 percent of the country's GDP and 7.39 percent of the total 3.2 trillion baht (about 105.43 billion U.S. dollars) budget. That is an estimated 6 billion baht (about 197.69 million U.S. dollars) increase from last fiscal year.

Large portions of the armed forces' budget will cover the welfare benefits for military personnel and their dependents, he said. Enditem

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