Thailand's military confirms interest for the US-made UH-72 Lakota light utility helicopter.

The Thai military is moving toward making the American-made UH-72A Lakota Thailand’s main light-utility helicopter with the army planning to add on to last year’s order of 15 Airbus Helicopters choppers with more to replace its ageing fleet of Vietnam-era aircraft, reports today the Bangkok Post.

The UH-72A Lakota is a non-arms-bearing helicopter which can perform medical and casualty evacuations, provide disaster relief, aid in homeland defense and also work to counter drugs and narcotics.

He did not detail which of the four variants of the militarised Eurocopter EC145 the military was considering, but an army source said earlier that the army was eyeing UH-72A, an unarmed utility military version of the EC145.

The Thai military ordered six UH-72A copters in March from Airbus Helicopters, the American subsidiary of EADS North America. It then boosted that with an order of nine more in late September for an estimated cost of $89 million. The Thai army chief did not specify how many new aircraft the army was considering.

With the recent crashes of army Bell 212 helicopters, the army is accelerating its push to upgrade fleet, which consists of 40 212's and about the same number of Bell UH-1 "Huey" aircraft dating back to Vietnam War.

The country's army budget for in the next fiscal year will be mainly used to bring in new helicopters and train new pilots, Gen Udomdej said.

The decision followed several accidents, including the one in Phayao province in November that killed deputy 3rd army region commander Maj Gen Songphol Thongjeen.