VESSEL REVIEW | HTMS Suriya – Royal Thai Navy buoy tender with hydrographic survey capability
The Royal Thai Navy took delivery of HTMS Suriya, a new buoy tender and hydrographic vessel built by Asimar, in Samut Prakan, Thailand, on March 30, 2026. The ship replaces an older vessel of the same name and will maintain aids to navigation in Thai waters.
The handover notice has assigned Suriya to the Maritime Marker Task Force under the navy’s Hydrographic Department. Her duties include maintaining aids to navigation such as lighthouses, beacons and buoys located along Thailand’s coasts, around islands and in hazardous waters
Suriya carries a small tender and a Melcal heavy-duty crane for loading and unloading buoys. The crane is the principal item of buoy handling equipment identified in published accounts of the ship.
The Royal Thai Navy has described inspection and repair of aids to navigation as Suriya’s primary duty, though the ship can also support assistance to people in maritime emergencies and deliver supplies to navy units along the coast or at sea. Those assignments were included in the procurement plan for the vessel replacing the older Suriya.
Built to international hydrographic survey standards
The navy’s keel-laying specifications said the ship would be able to support surveys to the International Hydrographic Organisation’s (IHO) "Special Order" (SO) standard. Under IHO S-44, SO work is intended for areas where under-keel clearance is critical and requires that bathymetric coverage reach 100 per cent, along with a feature search covering 100 per cent.
The project specification also called for an integrated bridge system. Electronic navigation equipment was to be connected through an Ethernet network, with the navy referring to IMO standards.
Classed by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Suriya has an overall length of 60 metres (200 feet), a maximum beam of 13.3 metres (43.6 feet), and a maximum draught of 3.05 metres (10 feet). The navy’s handover figures gave her maximum displacement as 1,545 tonnes.
ABS additionally recorded a length between perpendiculars of 55 metres (180 feet), a moulded depth of five metres (16 feet), a design draught of only three metres (10 feet), and a design deadweight of 100. Its register listed a gross tonnage of 1,589 and a net tonnage of 477.
Proposed as an economical alternative to vessels built overseas
The navy listed 13.1 knots as the ship’s maximum speed on a continuous basis and 10 knots as her economical speed. Her stated range is about 2,400 nautical miles. Separate accounts of the delivery describe a continuous operating period of at least 10 days.
The ship has been described as capable of operating under conditions of up to Sea State five and operated by a crew complement of 50, though up to 67 people including both crew and service personnel can be accommodated.
Asimar built the ship at its yard in Samut Prakan. Its contract filing indicated the construction contract award a value of approximately THB885 million (US$26.5 million). The navy said it had presented the domestic build as support for Thailand’s shipbuilding industry and said it would cost less than foreign procurement.
Asimar said in its post-delivery statement that Suriya was designed in line with SOLAS, and developed to Habitability Plus criteria. ABS listed the ship as classed with ✠A1, Coast Guard Buoy Tender, Ⓔ, ✠AMS and ✠ACCU notations. The builder has described her as the first domestically built Royal Thai Navy ship to receive a high-level crew-habitability standard.
The ABS register also listed a fuel oil capacity of 65 cubic metres (17,000 gallons), a freshwater capacity of 102 cubic metres (26,900 gallons), and a ballast capacity of 149.8 cubic metres (39,570 gallons).
