What’s made from plastic, has a number of pieces of wire and two plastic antenna probes? A bomb detector, in fact.
The Thai military was duped into buying the dodgy bomb detectors thirteen years in the past. Some 320 of them! With the continuing insurgency in southern Thailand, the bomb detectors have been a possible answer for ferreting out small ordinances in the three southern provinces of Pattanai, Yala, and Narathiwat, earlier than they exploded. Or that’s how it was offered to the Army.
Yesterday, the Thai PM announced that the Ministry of Defence had already taken authorized action in opposition to the local suppliers of the fully ineffective ‘bomb detectors’, marketed because the GT-200, looking for compensation of 747 million baht.
A Move Forward MP Jirat Thongsuwan asked parliament who, or which, organisation must be held accountable for the procurement scandal involving the GT-200s. They have been purchased from a British company over two years, from 2006, with contracts valued at several hundred million baht.
According to Thai PBS World, in January 2010, the British authorities banned the export of the ADE651 bomb detecting system to Iraq and Afghanistan, after discovering that the gadget is a pretend (and not even a great fake), and warned international governments that the ADE651 and GT-200 are “infective in detecting bombs or explosives.”
The GT200 was produced by UK-based Global Technical Ltd, which claimed the device might detect, from a distance, varied substances together with explosives and medicines. It was distributed to numerous different nations in 2001 beneath the name GT200, ALPHA46, ADE+651, and AL-6D. The first organization that imported and used the GT200 gadget was the Royal Thai Airforce.
The proprietor of Global Technical, the British producer of the devices, was later convicted and sentenced to seven years in a UK prison.
To make matter worse, the Royal Thai Army spent 7.5 million investigating 320 of the procured items. Strange get together claimed, after the investigation, that the GT200s, all 320 of them, were “only ok for use as a “cat poop scoop”.
The system was first used at Bor Thong Airport in Yala. Officials had been “impressed by the results” so more devices were imported into different departments. But the device’s effectivity was questioned after it didn’t detect automotive bombs in Narathiwat.
The device was tested and it was discovered that it may only detect four bombs from 20. This outcome led to a further investigation and prosecution of the distributing companies and relevant Thai officials. From 2001 to 2010, Thailand imported 1,398 GT200 and ALPHA46 gadgets, costing 1.2 billion baht.
The Thaiger believes that the GT200’s capacity to detect 4 bombs out of 20, as reported by the Royal Thai Army, is completely unimaginable provided that the design and function of the plastic box and a few wires can be unable to detect a nuclear explosion at point-blank range.
But MP Jirat Thongsuwan already knew that.
“We all know that the gadget was simply an empty plastic box with two plastic antennae that couldn’t detect any bombs. When anybody requested concerning the contract signing with NSTDA, the Royal Thai Army would say it’s a secret.”