According to information published by the Royal Thai Navy on June 21, 2021, the Naval forces hold a launch ceremony for the two new Tor 997-class patrol boats, T997 and T998 at Marsun Shipyard in attendance of Admiral Chatchai Sriworakan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Navy. The Tor 997-class has an overall length of 41.44 meters, an overall beam of 7.2 m, and displaces about 223 tons at full load, with a speed of over 27 nautical miles.
The patrol boats are powered by two MTU 16V4000 R41 R diesel engines and armed with a Russian weapon system, the 30mm AK-306 machine gun.
AK-306 is a derivative of AK-630M that was developed for light craft and this system. Externally, the air-cooled AK-306 can be distinguished from the AK-630 by the absence of the water cooling system (a cylindrical jacket that surrounds the barrel cluster of the AK-630). Internally, the AK-306 (A-219) used electricity to power the automatics, instead of using the exhaust.
This version also lacked radar control, being only optically guided, hence making it less of an anti-missile weapon and more of a surface-to-surface weapon, and the designation of the overall system is consequently changed from A-213-Vympel-A to A-219. The design started in 1974 and the system was accepted into service in 1980. When production was completed in 1986, 125 systems were in service.
Royal Thai Navy launches two Tor 997-class patrol boats
According to information published by the Royal Thai Navy on June 21, 2021, the Naval forces hold a launch ceremony for the two new Tor 997-class patrol bo
navyrecognition.com