Royal Thai Navy's Ratanakosin-class corvette HTMS Sukhothai has sunk.

According to a tweet published by the Royal Thai Navy on December 19, 2022, the Ratanakosin-class corvette HTMS Sukhothai has sunk despite the Navy's attempts to save her.
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Thai Navy's Ratanakosin class corvette HTMS Sukhothai (Picture source: Royal Thai Navy)

HTMS Sukhothai (FS-442) was a corvette of the Ratanakosin class belonging to the Royal Thai Navy. She was launched on July 20, 1987, and commissioned on February 19, 1987.

The Ratanakosin-class corvettes are a class of two corvettes that were built for the Royal Thai Navy in the 1980s. Constructed in United States, a third was planned to be built in Thailand, but was cancelled before construction could begin. The Ratanakosin class is used as flagships for squadrons of fast attack craft.

The Ratanakosin class is based on the Saudi Arabian Badr-class design. They have a normal displacement of 840 metric tons (830 long tons) and 960 t (940 long tons) full load.

The corvettes measure 76.82 metres (252 ft 0 in) long with a beam of 9.55 m (31 ft 4 in) and a draft of 2.44 m (8 ft 0 in). The class is powered by MTU 20V1163 TB83 diesel engines each driving one shaft rated at 12,000 kilowatts (16,000 bhp).

This gives the vessels a maximum speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph) and a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). The ships have a complement of 15 officers and 72 enlisted.

The class is equipped with one Decca 1226 and one HSA ZW-06 surface search radar, one HSA DA-05 air/surface search radar, one HSA WM-25 fire control radar, one HSA LIROD-8 optical fire control system, and one STN Atlas DSQS-21C hull-mounted sonar.

The corvettes are armed with two quad launchers for eight RGM-84 Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) and one octuple Albatros launcher for 24 Selenia Aspide surface-to-air missiles (SAM).

Furthermore, the vessels are armed with one Otobreda 76 mm (3 in) gun, two Bofors 40 mm (1.6 in) guns in a twin Otobreda mount and two 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon GAM-B01 cannon. The Ratanakosin class is also equipped with two Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes for Sting Ray torpedoes.

HTMS Sukhothai sank after a storm in the Gulf of Thailand on 18 December 2022. She developed a heavy list after electrical systems and pumps failed due to flooding. The failures were caused by seawater entering an exhaust port in heavy seas, which led to a short circuit in the ship's electrical system.