The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) has dismissed Cambodian allegations that Thai fighter jets left unexploded bombs during recent hostilities, insisting that all missions were carried out successfully and no ordnance remains.
ACM Prapas Sornchaidee, the assistant commander-in-chief of the air force, was responding on Wednesday to claims made by Phnom Penh after it released images of an object resembling an Mk-84 bomb, saying it was evidence of an attack carried out by Thai forces.
Photographs alone cannot be used to confirm the origin of a weapon or identify the party responsible without technical and forensic verification conducted according to international standards, said ACM Prapas, who is also the director of the Joint Information Centre on the Thailand-Cambodia Situation.
Based on the object’s external appearance, it could possibly belong to the Mk 84 family of 2,000-pound bombs, or it may be an older M118 3,000-pound bomb, which was widely used by the United States military during past wars.
However, ACM Prapas said that determining the weapon’s origin cannot be done solely through visual inspection.
“Displaying an object publicly and claiming it belongs to one side without verifiable technical evidence is merely an allegation, not proof,” he said.
He added that the RTAF operates a battle damage assessment system that uses imaging and tracking technology to closely monitor the deployment of weapons from its F-16 and Gripen fighter aircraft.
According to assessment results, every weapon used during RTAF operations functioned properly, detonated on target and caused verifiable damage within military areas, and no evidence was found to support claims that a bomb was left unexploded, he said.
ACM Prapas also pointed out that the body and tail fins of the object shown in the images appeared largely intact despite the fact that air-dropped bombs are normally subjected to massive impact forces.
He noted that even in cases involving dud bombs, detailed examinations are still required to confirm the type, origin and chain of possession, reaffirming that conclusions cannot be reached solely through images.
