Royal Thai Air Force

It is a lightweight single-engine, delta-cannered multi-role fighter.

Thailand flies the C&D variants acquired as part of a broader modernization of the Royal Thai Air Force.

The aircraft cruises well above the speed of sound, pulls serious G-loads, and demands a level of systems proficiency that takes experienced military aviators months to develop.

The Queen did not walk in off the street.

She completed a structured conversion course invited by the Royal Thai Air Force to fly the platform.

That matters conversion training onto a high-performance combat jet is not ceremonial.

You earn that solo.

The Royal Thai Air Force doesn't hand out Gripen qualifications as a diplomatic gesture.

There aren't very many of this one left.

It is a Thai, Royal Thai Air Force A340-500.

Uh, I think someone said one of like six A345s-

Yeah

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the badge.

You can see everything that you'd need to see to say it's a, you know, a Royal Thai Air Force-

Yeah

I had a student from Thailand.

His father was a chief of staff of the Thai Air Force.

But he was there to learn how to fly the F-5.

Now they also had the F-16 in the Thai Air Force.

But my job was to train him how to fly the F-5.

And he eventually went to the F-16 in his country.

But that was our job.

They came to us and we taught them how to use the airplane.

Around 1,800 have been returned to passengers, but about 8,000 bags remain.

Some 100 Royal Thai Air Force personnel are helping out, but clearing the backlog could still take another four days.

Meanwhile, the airline is cutting up to 15% of daily flights as it works to restore normal operations within the next seven days.

And finally, the Philippines says it has driven a Chinese research vessel away from waters near Taiwan, deploying its largest Coast Guard ship and an aircraft.

And then there was some border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia about one year ago.

So the Thailand Air Force sent F-16 to bomb the scam operation centers.

That's kind of, how do you say that? The butterfly effect or something? It all started from Moda and ended up in some F-16 bombing the scam operating centers.

So that's an international cooperation, right?