U.S. Thailand sign First International Armaments Cooperation Collaboration Agreement

The U.S. and Thailand signed their first International Armaments Cooperation collaboration agreement during a virtual ceremony.

Kelli L. Seybolt, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force, International Affairs and Lt. Gen. Somkiat Sampan, Thailand’s Director-General of Defence Science and Technology Department, signed the agreement on June 1 to collaborate on defense technologies.

The topic for the agreement was first proposed by Thailand, and overlapped with current research activities and interests of the U.S. Air Force. There are now inexpensive, field-deployable technologies that have the potential to defend installations using automated remote sensing.

The agreement will allow both parties to advance the theory and testing needed for systems that can sense, detect, and classify installation threats. Commercial off-the-shelf prototypes from both Thailand and the U.S. will be tested, and feedback shared.

Exploratory discussions were first held at the Royal Thai Air Force Academy with representation from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Secretary of the Air Force International Affairs, and the Joint United States Military Advisory Group Thailand in November 2019.