Armed Forces Overview: The military includes three branches: the Royal Thai Army (190,000), the Royal Thai Navy (79,200, including 1,940 naval aviation personnel and 19,700 members of the Royal Thai Marine Corps), and the Royal Thai Air Force (estimated at 45,000). Reserve forces total 200,000 personnel. Military forces are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, and, in the past, the supreme commander of the armed forces has been a major political force. The king is the de jure head of the armed forces.
Foreign Military Relations: A longstanding ally of the United States, Thailand signed numerous bilateral defense and mutual security agreements between 1950 and 2003. In 2002 Thailand received Foreign Military Assistance from the United States in the amount of US$3 million; in 2003 it received US$3.7 million and in 2004, US$3.4 million. Most Thai military equipment is from the United States, United Kingdom, and China.
External Threat: Thailand faces a number of external threats from cross-border activities. Those on the border with Burma involve the handling of ethnic rebels, refugees, and illegal crossings, often related to drugs and arms trafficking. There have been periodic armed border clashes between Thai and Burmese border guards. Some 98,000 Karen refugees live in camps on the Thai side of the Burma-Thailand border, and rebel members of this group have occasionally skirmished with Thai troops. In 2001 and 2002, Thai and pro-Rangoon forces clashed in Thai territory, leading to strained relations between the two nations. Similarly, separatist insurgents in predominantly Muslim southern Thailand allegedly have operated from neighboring Malaysia, leading to cooperation between the two governments and Malaysian arrests of separatist ringleaders. Thailand has periodically closed border areas where communist Cambodian insurgents at odds with the Phnom Penh government control neighboring territory. The Cambodian government has accused Thailand of complicity with the insurgents.
Defense Budget: The estimated military expenditure for fiscal year 2000 was US$1.8 billion. In 2003 defense expenditures were 1.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). The 2004 defense budget was projected at US$1.9 billion.
Major Military Units: The army has four regional armies, two corps, three armored infantry divisions, two cavalry divisions, two mechanized infantry divisions, two special forces divisions, one artillery division, one air defense artillery division, one engineer division, one economic development division, one independent cavalry regiment, eight independent infantry battalions, four reconnaissance companies, and one armored air cavalry regiment. Four rapid-reaction force battalions are being formed, and there are four reserve infantry divisions. The navy has three fleets (North Gulf, South Gulf, and Andaman Sea), one naval air division, and five naval bases (including one supporting its Mekong River Operating Unit). The marines are organized into one division with two infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, one amphibious assault battalion, and one reconnaissance battalion. The air force is organized into four air divisions.
Major Military Equipment: The army has between 330 and 380 main battle tanks of various types, between 210 and 460 light tanks (some in storage), 32 reconnaissance vehicles, about 950 armored personnel carriers, 550 pieces of towed artillery, 20 pieces of self-propelled artillery, 1,900 mortars, more than 320 air defense guns, and an arsenal of antitank guided weapons, rocket launchers, recoilless launchers, and surface-to-air missiles. The army also has an unmanned autonomous search vehicle, a variety of fixed-wing aircraft, 3 attack helicopters, 158 transport helicopters, and 40 training helicopters. The navy has 1 aircraft carrier, 12 frigates, 5 corvettes, 6 fast attack craft armed with missiles, 15 patrol craft, 7 mine warfare ships, 7 amphibious forces ships, and 15 support and miscellaneous ships. Naval aviation has 27 combat aircraft, 1 antisubmarine warfare aircraft, 24 maritime air patrol planes, 2 transports, 2 search-and-rescue planes, 14 antisubmarine warfare helicopters, 5 search-and-rescue helicopters, and 6 transport helicopters. The marine corps has 33 assault amphibian vehicles, 24 armored personnel carriers, 48 pieces of towed artillery, 14 air defense guns, and 24 or more antitank guided weapons. The air force has 194 combat aircraft, 1 electronic intelligence aircraft, 3 reconnaissance aircraft, 2 survey planes, 38 transport aircraft, and a small fleet of aircraft used by the king and other VIPs as well as aircraft used for liaison purposes. Although the air force has no armed helicopters, it does have 34 unarmed helicopters. On the ground, the air force has one ntiaircraft artillery battalion and surface-to-air missile forces.
Military Service: Men reaching 21 years of age are subject to two years of compulsory military service. Volunteers may join at the minimum age of 18. Women play a role in the armed forces but are not accepted in the police or military academies. They do serve, however, as military academy instructors.
Paramilitary Forces: Thailand has about 113,700 active-duty paramilitary personnel. These forces include about 20,000 members of a light infantry force called the Thahan Phran (Hunter Soldiers or Royal Thai Rangers), which was organized in 1978 to fight communist guerrillas and is now deployed in active troublespots along the border. The 45,000-strong Volunteer Defense Corps provides the border patrol police with law and order support during military emergencies and natural disasters.
Foreign Military Forces: Singapore maintains a training camp for artillery and combat engineers in Thailand. The United States has 30 air force, 10 navy, and 29 marine corps personnel station in Thailand.
Military Forces Abroad: Thailand had about 500 troops in Iraq from October 2003 to September 2004 and also sent a small contingent to Afghanistan. Since 2000, Thailand has sent observers, police, and troops to the following United Nations (UN) multinational peacekeeping operations: UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM), UN Mission in Bosnia Herzegovina (UNMIBH), UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET), and UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). In 2005 it had 177 troops and three observers with the United Nations Operation in Burundi (ONUB) and a military observer force of three personnel with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
Police and Internal Security: The Royal Thai Police have approximately 200,000 officers organized in 10 geographic regions. These forces include provincial police, marine police, police aviation, and border patrol police. The national police are under the command of the police commissioner general, who reports directly to the prime minister and the 20-member Police Commission. The police commissioner general is appointed by the prime minister, subject to cabinet and royal approval. The Border Patrol Police have special authority and responsibility in border areas to combat insurgent and separatist movements. Thailand also has a Central Police Academy and provincial police training schools.
Terrorism: Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Thailand has pledged itself as a strong ally in the United States-led war on terrorism. Thailand itself has been confronted with terrorist violence, primarily in the predominantly Muslim southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala, which border Malaysia. In 2002 Thai police officers were killed and bombs were detonated when the minister of interior toured the violence-prone area; five schools suffered damage from arsonists. The Thai military attributed these actions to Guragan Mujahideen Islam Pattani (Pattani Islamic Mujahideen Movement), thought to be an al Qaeda affiliate, which was established in 1995 as a constituent group of Bersatu (United Front for the Independence of Pattani). Bersatu was established in 1989, and both organizations have the goal of establishing a Muslim state in southern Thailand. In 2003 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiah (Community of Islam, a regional group with affiliations with al Qaeda established in 1993 or 1994), who were arrested in June 2003, confessed to plotting attacks on embassies in Bangkok and tourist sites. Further arsons and bombings and attacks on police and army bases in 2004 heightened the terrorist threat. When seven Muslim protesters were shot and 78 others died in police custody in October 2004, 30 Buddhists were killed in November in retaliation. In 2004 alone, more than 500 people died as a result of insurgent and terrorist violence in the south. This separatist violence has led to border closures and security tightening with neighboring Malaysia to inhibit terrorist activities. Fears of terrorism against its own tourist resorts emanated from the terrorist bombings in Bali, Indonesia, in October 2002. There were allegations that the Bali bombers, members of Jemaah Islamiah, may have planned their attack while living in southern Thailand.
Human Rights: The constitution provides for freedom of speech, press, peaceful assembly and association, religion, and movement within the country and abroad. The government is reported generally to respect the rights of its citizens. However, the U.S. Department of State reports significant problems in areas where separatist violence has occurred, particularly in the predominantly Muslim south. Some 180 persons are reported to have died there while in the custody in 2004. Security forces have sometime operated in “a climate of impunity,” have used excessive, lethal force against criminal suspects, and reportedly have committed or been connected to numerous extrajudicial, arbitrary, and unlawful killings. The government’s antidrug war in 2003 resulted in more than 1,300 extrajudicial killings of suspected drug traffickers. Prison conditions and some provincial immigration detention facilities are characterized as poor. In 2004 more than 1,600 persons died in prison or police custody, 131 as a result of police actions. Trafficking in women and children and forced prostitution and labor are serious problems in Thailand. It is conservatively estimated that 200,000 women and children are engaged in prostitution as part of Thailand’s illegal sex tourism industry. Of these, between 30,000 and 40,000 prostitutes are under the age of 18 years; this figure does not include foreign migrants, many of whom come from Burma, China, and Laos. Thai and migrant women also are trafficked to Japan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Australia, South Africa, Europe, and the United States for prostitution and sweatshop labor.