He was optimistic about the test's outcome, because a test flight of a half-scale prototype late last month went well.

"If we are successful, the country is going to save a lot of money," said Suthira.

He said the country currently had to pay about Bt1 billion for a new UAV, and many agencies, such as the armed forces, the Royal Rainmaking Bureau and the Fisheries Department needed them.

"That's why we proposed the UAV research-and-development project," he said.

Gathered under the Bt97 million project's umbrella were more than 100 team members recruited from various state agencies to develop UAV technology and build two working UAVs and another three prototypes.

Key agencies involved in the project are the Thailand Research Fund and the Defence Ministry's Office of Research and Development.

Maj-General Pongrujee Siriwattana, who heads the UAV research-and-development project, said the country currently owned four UAVs, all imported from Israel.

"Because we're not the technology's owner, we have to rely on Israel for maintenance and that costs us several million baht a year," she said.

Suthira said the project would also train technicians needed to maintain and repair the UAVs.

A UAV is a powered, remote-controlled aircraft.

Capable of flying on its own or by remote control, the aircraft's key strategic advantage is that it can fly in dangerous circumstances. If it crashes or is lost there is no subsequent death, injury or capture of crew.

One of the key components in the project is the technology used to safeguard information recorded and stored in the UAV, to avoid capture of that information in the event of the plane being shot down.

The Thailand-developed UAV will be known as "Puksin".

Wing Commander Nawaphan Nutakhamhaeng said the first-generation Puksin UAV would be controlled remotely from the ground.

Anan Paengnoy, The Nation