The Royal Thai Army (RTA) is set to begin trials of a new prototype of the locally developed Black Widow Spider wheeled armoured fighting vehicle (AFV).
The prototype was handed over to the service in a ceremony held on 9 July at the Thanarat Infantry Camp in Thailandā€™s western Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, according to an announcement made the following day by the countryā€™s Defence Technology Institute (DTI).
The RTA was handed over a new prototype of the locally developed Black Widow Spider wheeled AFV on 9 July. (DTI)
No further details were provided but an image of the 8Ć—8 platform shows that it has been fitted with a remote weapon station (RWS), similar in appearance to the ADDER DM40/50 from Singaporeā€™s ST Engineering, mounting a 12.7 mm (.50 cal) machine gun, a 40 mm automatic grenade launcher, and six smoke grenade launchers.
The Black Widow Spider, a mock-up of which was first unveiled at the Defense & Security 2013 exhibition in Bangkok, weighs about 25 tonnes, is about 7 m long, 2.7 m wide, and can carry nine troops, a gunner, commander, and driver. It was developed by DTI in collaboration with Singapore Technologies Kinetics (ST Kinetics) and local industry.
The vehicle, which has also been previously displayed armed with a 30 mm MK44 dual-feed cannon and a 7.62 mm co-axial machine gun, has a stated top speed of 100 km per hour, an operational range of 600 km, and operates with an independent suspension system and a central tyre inflation system.
It is also designed to achieve STANAG 4569 Level 4 ballistic protection. Another feature of the vehicle is its modular concept, which the DTI has said enables the vehicle to be reconfigured to meet a variety of operational requirements.
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