The Royal Thai Army (RTA) continues to modernise its rotary-winged aviation fleet. Its latest receipts are four new Sikorsky UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, as well as the arrival of its first Boeing AH-6i Little Bird helicopters.
The Black Hawk quartet was formally accepted into RTA service at a ceremony in Lopburi on 18 September 2026.
They are connected to a Department of Defense contract notification dated 28 October 2024. That US$1.2 billion deal for Sikorsky covered UH-60Ms for Australia, Brazil, Greece, Sweden and Thailand, but with no mention of individual or overall helicopter numbers.
It is therefore unclear whether Thailand ordered more than four Black Hawks on that occasion.
These new aircraft will be operated by the 9th Aviation Battalion, Aviation Regiment of the Army Aviation Center, the only formation to possess Black Hawks. They will join eight refurbished UH-60Ls procured in 2002, three refurnished UH-60As obtained in 2022, and seven other UH-60Ms purchased in 2014 and 2022. This now gives the RTA a total fleet of 22 Black Hawks.
Six of the UH-60Ls received weather radars after Krin Aviation and Technology was granted a THB150 million (US$4.2 million) contract in July 2022.
As for the AH-6i aircraft, an initial batch of at least four units was seen being unloaded from a ship onto trucks at Kerry Siam Seaport in Chonburi Province on 27 September 2026.
A deal for eight AH-6i helicopters was approved by the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme way back in 2019, but Boeing only received a US$103.8 million contract on 18 February 2022.
They are destined to replace several remaining Bell AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters used by the RTA. They can fire Hellfire missiles, giving them a sharper bite than a mere light reconnaissance helicopter.
Thailand’s package announced by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency included 50 AGM-114R Hellfire missiles, 200 APKWS guided rockets, 500 Hydra 70 rockets, M134 7.62mm Miniguns and GAU-19/B 12.7mm machine guns.
The first of these AH-6is were known to be undergoing test flights in Mesa, Arizona in June this year. However, the delivery schedule is more than a year later than expected, since Boeing’s contract stipulated a completion date of May 2025.
Boeing only ever attracted two customers for the AH-6i – the other being 24 units for Saudi Arabia – and Boeing’s production line has now closed.
by Gordon Arthur
