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An old favourite - GT200 bomb detectors


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GT200 bomb detectors only good enough to be used as a ‘cat poop scoop’
Published on  Monday, June 6, 2022 17:52 By Petch Petpailin

The Thai government was slammed by opposition party Move Forward for wasting almost 7.6 million baht of its budget on investigating GT200 bomb detectors only good enough to be used as a “cat poop scoop.”

The GT200 was produced by UK-based Global Technical Ltd, who claimed the device could detect, from a distance, various substances including explosives and drugs. It was distributed to a number of different countries in 2001 under the name of GT200, ALPHA46, ADE+651, and AL-6D. The first organization that imported and used the GT200 device was the Royal Thai Airforce.

The UK Government banned the export of the devices in January 2010 and warned foreign governments that the GT200 and ADE 651 are “wholly ineffective” at detecting bombs and explosives. The owner of Global Technical, Gary Bolton, was convicted on 26 July 2013 on two charges of fraud relating to the sale and manufacture of the GT200 and sentenced to seven years in prison

The device was first used at Bor Thong Airport in Yala. Officials were impressed by the result so more devices were imported into other departments. But the device’s efficiency was questioned after it failed to detect car bombs in Narathiwas, in the South of Thailand. The device was tested and it was discovered that it could only detect 4 bombs from 20. This result 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 devices, costing 1.2 billion baht ...

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... Jetsada Denduangboriphan, Professor at the Faculty of Science of Chulalongkorn University, who led the GT200 investigation team in 2010, says the investigation ended in 2010.

“NSTDA concluded that no electric charges or radiation was released from the device. This information made the government win the device distributor in the court and put more than 100 relevant officials under investigation.”

Jetsada added that foreign companies would never investigate empty plastic boxes like this. He says they would sue the distributor as soon as they discovered the device was empty. The professor even made fun of the device, saying it is only good enough to be used as a cat litter poop scoop.

https://thethaiger.com/news/national/gt200-bomb-detectors-only-good-enough-to-be-used-as-a-cat-poop-scoop

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7.6 THB Million or 10,000 per device for the 750 or so purchased, to remove 4 screws and reveal an empty box, I would willing do it for half the price.

Why are they looking to exonerate the Army Officials who made the purchase in the first place. A bit fishy, a Military Govermen investigates purchases made by the military.

I bet the same Generals who sanctioned the purchase also signed off on Thailands Airship , and you wonder why there is opposition the the budget bill put forward by the government, they just waste money on shiny toys and receive brown envelopes.

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Some quotes and figures from a Military Budget

Why so much for Drones

During Thursday's debate, Mr Yuttapong also targeted the navy's planned purchase of three Israeli-made Hermes 900-model unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), at 1.34 billion baht each. He said the Philippine air force purchased the same model for about 340 million baht each

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The army has cancelled a project to examine fraudulent GT200 bomb detectors and will return the budget set aside for the scheme to the state, according to army spokesman Gen Santipong Thammapiya.

Gen Santipong said there is no need for the army to check the devices because a legal dispute in which the army has sought 683 million baht in compensation from the distributor has been finalized.

The general was referring to the Central Administrative Court’s ruling last year that ordered the distributor of the device to pay 683 million baht to the army. The distributor filed an application to withdraw an appeal against the ruling in February this year and the request was granted by the Supreme Administrative Court on March 7.

Gen Santipong said the army will return a budget of 2-3 million baht allocated in the 2022 fiscal year to the state coffers while stressing that the army has not set aside a budget in the 2023 fiscal year for examining the faulty GT200 bomb detectors.

He said that some 320 out of 757 GT200 bomb detectors have been examined to gather evidence for the army’s lawsuit seeking compensation from the distributor. He said the army set aside 3.2 million baht in the 2021 fiscal year for the examination and some 4.37 million baht in the 2022 fiscal year.

“The army insists that it spends the taxpayers’ money efficiently,” he said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said yesterday that the budget for the 2023 fiscal year does not include the examination of the faulty GT200 bomb detectors.

The army’s examination of the GT200 bomb detectors came to public attention during the House debate on the 2023 budget bill last week when an opposition MP questioned why the army awarded a 7.5-million-baht contract in March to the National Science and Technology Development Agency to examine 757 GT200 bomb detectors despite it being common knowledge they were fraudulent devices.

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Efficiently like on useless Airships, Submarines without Engines and overpriced Drones. What he means is “We Generals line our Pockets efficiently by wasting tax payers money” 

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