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D EF EN S EH ER E กา ร์ป อง กั นและ คื วา ม่ ปลอ ดีภั ย ป 2023 ฉ บั บพิิ เศษ 23
THAILAND

MILITARY AND SECURITY

Real GDP (purchasing power parity) Military Expenditures Defense Budget per year
$1.58 trillion (2023 est.) 1.1% of GDP (2023 est.) $5.8 billion (2023)
$1.48 trillion (2022) 1.3% of GDP (2022) $5.5 billion (2022)
$1.35 trillion (2021) 1.3% of GDP (2021) $6.6 billion (2021)
$1.27 trillion (2020) 1.4% of GDP (2020) $7.4 billion (2020)
$1.34 trillion (2019) 1.3% of GDP (2019) $7.3 billion (2019)
$1.29 trillion (2018) 1.3% of GDP (2018) $6.7 billion (2018)

Military and Security Forces Defense oriented issues
Royal Thai Armed Forces (Kongthap Thai, RTARF): Royal Thailand is concerned about the region’s increasingly
Thai Army (Kongthap Bok Thai, RTA), Royal Thai Navy tense maritime security environment and continues
(Kongthap Ruea Thai, RTN; includes Royal Thai Marine efforts to enhance its naval capabilities. Submarine
Corps), Royal Thai Air Force (Kongthap Akaat Thai, RTAF) acquisition remains a priority, although this project faces
major challenges. Bangkok suspended plans to buy two
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions additional S26T Yuan-class submarines on order from
The RTARF has a diverse array of foreign-supplied China (along with other defence-equipment contracts) in
weapons systems, including a considerable amount of April 2020 owing to the financial constraints imposed by
older US equipment; over the past decade, Thailand has the coronavirus pandemic. During March 2022, Thailand’s
received arms from nearly 20 countries, with China, South navy confirmed that construction in China of the first
Korea, Ukraine, and the US being among the leading boat had stopped following Germany’s refusal – due to
suppliers; in recent years, Thailand has been making the EU’s arms embargo on Beijing – to supply the MTU396
efforts to increase its domestic defense production diesel engines needed to power its electric generators.
capabilities in such areas as armored vehicles, unmanned It was reported that China had offered to transfer two
aerial systems, and other military technologies. ex-PLA Navy (PLAN) submarines to Thailand instead, but