Naresuan Class Frigate
The Crossover ship in the Thailand Navy inventory
HTMS Naresuan (FFG-421) (Thai: เรือหลวงนเรศวร), commissioned in 1995, is a modified version of the Chinese-made Type 053 frigate, corporate designed between Royal Thai Navy and China but built by the China State Shipbuilding Corporation in Shanghai. Her sister ship, HTMS Taksin was delivered in November 1995. The ships came at 2 billion baht each, less than the 8 billion baht claimed price tag for Western-built frigates.
The Royal Thai Navy complained of the poor quality of the ships. The ship's damage control system was very limited, with very basic fire suppression systems. It was claimed that if the ship's hull was breached, the ship would be quickly lost to flooding. The Thai Navy had to spend considerable time and effort to correct some of these issues.
Despite being a "Chinese made warship", the Royal Thai Navy was given approval to install US & Western made weapon systems and sensors into the hull of the ships. Some of the weapon systems including Harpoon anti ship missile, RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile/ESSM, and Mk.45 Mod-2 Naval gun.