BLUE LANTERN POST-SHIPMENT END USE CHECK ON

UNCLAS BANGKOK 001821 SIPDIS FOR PM/DTCC - BLUE LANTERN COORDINATOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETTC KOMC TH SUBJECT: BLUE LANTERN POST-SHIPMENT END USE CHECK ON LICENSE 050108124 REF: STATE 29852 ¶1. (U) POL FSN April 24 visited the Signal Department of the Royal Thai Army (RTA) and met with the Chief of the Signal Department's Procurement Division and the Chief of the Office of the Director-General of the Department. The colonels verbally confirmed the purchase of five inertial measurement units (IMU) for use in the avionics system in the Searcher 2 UAV. The RTA was procuring the items from Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI). ¶2. (U) Both of the officers were quite surprised to learn that the IMUs were products of, and purchased in, the U.S. The RTA officers claimed that IAI had informed the RTA that all equipment in the contract had been made in Israel. ¶3. (U) The RTA officers stated that the IMUs had not yet been delivered to the Signal Department, but that IAI had told the RTA that they would arrive in May. Both officers said that the Signal Department had been working with IAI since approximately 1999. ¶4. (U) POL FSN July 23 visited the RTA Aviation Center in Lopburi, Thailand. The reftel five sets of IMUs had been ordered by the RTA's Signal Department in Bangkok, and then forwarded to the Aviation Center for assembly in Searcher 2 UAVs. A group of IAI engineers and technicians as well as representatives from the Army Aviation Center showed four UAVs and POL FSN was able to identify four IMUs as listed reftel. The fifth IMU was displayed in a box as it would be used as a spare part. The IAI representatives said that the IMUs had departed Israel in mid-May, arrived Bangkok in mid-June, and had been delivered to RTA Aviation Center in late June. JOHN