The Royal Thai Navy’s (RTN) plan to purchase submarines is seemingly sinking to the bottom of the ocean after a Chinese supplier reportedly admitted it could not meet its contractual obligations. It is reported that China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co (CSOC) finally admitted it could not fit submarines with German-made MTU396 engines. A government-to-government agreement involving the procurement of three S26T Yuan-class submarines was approved in 2017 at 36 billion baht, or about 12 billion baht each. So far, the country has paid 7 billion baht as part of an instalment plan to have…

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